UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


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I  J.- 


THE    HOUSEHOLD    EDITON. 


TPIE  WORKS 


OF 


FEEDERICK  SCHILLER. 


Vol.  L  — historical. 

history  of  the  thirty  years'  war. 
history  of  the  revolt  of  the  netherlands, 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE   GERMAN. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


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NEW    YORK: 

JOHN     D.     AVILLIAMS, 
24  West  Fourteenth  St. 


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Tnows 

IMNTISO  AHO  flOO<91NDIMQ  COMMMT, 
htw   rOHK. 


PREFACE   TO   THE   EDITION. 


The  present  is  the  best  collected  edition  of  the  important 
works  of  Schiller  which  is  accessible  to  readers  in  the 
English  language.  Detached  poems  or  dramas  have  been 
translated  at  various  times  since  the  first  publication  of 
the  original  works  ;  and  in  several  instances  these  versions 
have  been  incorporated  into  this  collection. 

Schiller  was  not  less  efficiently  qualified  by  nature  for 
an  historian  than  for  a  dramatist.  He  Avas  formed  to 
excel  in  all  departments  of  literature,  and  the  admirable 
lucidity  of  style  and  soundness  and  impartiality  of  judg- 
ment displayed  in  his  historical  writings  will  not  easily 
be  surpassed,  and  will  always  recommend  them  as  popular 
expositions  of  the  periods  of  which  they  treat. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  first  English  edition  many 
corrections  and  improvements  have  been  made,  with  a 
view  to  rendering  it  as  acceptable  as  possible  to  English 
readers ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  of  a 
translation,  the  publishers  feel  sure  that  Schiller  will  be 
heartily  acceptable  to  English  readers,  and  that  the 
influence  of  his  writings  will  continue  to  increase. 

The  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands 
was  translated  by  Lieut,  E.  B.  Eastwick,  and  originally 
published  abroad  for  students'  use.  But  this  translation 
was  too  strictly  literal  for  general  readers.  It  has  been 
carefully  revised,  and  some  portions  have  been  entirely 
rewritten  by  the  Rev.  A.  J.  W.  Morrison,  who  also  has  so 
ably  translated  the  History  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War. 


IV  TREFACE  .TO   THE    EDITION. 

The  Camp  of  Wallenstein  was  translated  by  Mr. 
James  Churchill,  and  first  a|)peared  in  "  Frazer's  Maga- 
zine." It  is  an  exceedingly  happy  version  of  what  has 
always  been  deemed  the  most  untranslatable  of  Schiller's 
works. 

The  Piccolomini  and  Death  of  Wallenstein  are 
the  admirable  version  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  completed  by  the 
addition  of  all  those  passages  which  he  has  omitted,  and 
by  a  restoration  of  Schiller's  own  arrangement  of  the  acts 
and  scenes.  It  is  said,  in  defence  of  the  variations  which 
exist  between  the  German  original  and  the  version  given 
by  Coleridge,  that  he  translated  from  a  prompter's  copy 
in  manuscript,  before  the  drama  had  been  printed,  and 
that  Schiller  himself  subsequently  altered  it,  by  omitting 
some  passages,  adding  others,  and  even  engrafting  several 
of  Coleridge's  adaptations. 

Wilhelm  Tell  is  translated  by  Theodore  Martin, 
Esq.,  whose  vvell-known  position  as  a  writer,  and  whose 
special  acquaintance  with  German  literature  make  any 
recommendation  superfluous. 

Don  Carlos  is  translated  by  R.  D.  Boylan,  Esq.,  and,  in 
the  opinion  of  competent  judges,  the  version  is  eminently 
successful.  Mr.  Theodore  Martin  kindly  gave  some  assist- 
ance, and,  it  is  but  justice  to  state,  has  enhanced  the  value 
of  the  work  by  his  judicious  suggestions. 

The  translation  of  Mary  Stuart  is  that  by  the  late 
Joseph  Mellish,  who  appears  to  have  been  on  terms  of 
intimate  friendship  with  Schiller.  His  version  was  made 
from  the  ]irompter's  copy,  before  the  play  was  published, 
aiifl,  like  Coleridge's  Wallenstein,  contains  many  passages 
not  found  in  the  printed  edition.  Tiiese  arc  distinguished 
by  brackets.  On  the  other  liand,  Mr.  Mellish  omitted 
many  passages  which  now  f(»i-m  part  of  tlie  printed  drama, 
all  of  which  are  now  adiled.     The  translation,  as  a  whole, 


PREFACE    TO    THE    EDITION.  V 

Stands  out  from  similar  works  of  the  time  (1800)  in  almost 
as  marked  a  degree  as  Coleridge's  Wallenstein,  and  some 
passages  exhibit  powers  of  a  high  order ;  a  few,  however, 
especially  in  the  earlier  scenes,  seemed  capable  of  improve- 
ment, and  these  have  been  revised,  but,  in  deference  to  the 
translator,  with  a  sparing  hand. 

The  Maid  of  Orleans  is  contributed  by  Miss  Anna 
Swanwick,  whose  translation  of  Faust  has  since  become 
well  known.  It  has  been  carefully  revised,  and  is  now, 
for  the  first  time,  published  complete. 

The  Bride  of  Messina,  which  has  been  regarded  as 
the  poetical  masterpiece  of  Schiller,  and,  perhaps  of  all  his 
works,  presents  the  greatest  difficulties  to  the  translator, 
is  rendered  by  A.  Lodge,  Esq.,  M.  A.  This  version,  on  its 
first  publication  in  England,  a  few  years  ago,  was  received 
with  deserved  eulogy  by  distinguished  critics.  To  the 
present  edition  has  been  prefixed  Schiller's  Essay  on  the 
Use  of  the  Chorus  in  Tragedy,  in  which  the  author's 
favorite  theory  of  the  "  Ideal  of  Art "  is  enforced  with 
great  ingenuity  and  eloquence. 


CONTENTS. 


PAQE 

Book  I 5 

11 85 

III 177 

rv 271 

V 319 


luOS 

HISTORY 


OF  THE 


THIRTY  TEAES'  WAR  IN  GERMANY. 


BOOK  I. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  religious  wars  in  Germany  to 
the  peace  of  Munster  scarcely  anything  great  or  remark- 
able occurred  in  the  political  world  of  Europe  in  which  the 
Reformation  had  not  an  imj^ortant  share.  All  the  e\  ents 
of  this  period,  if  they  did  not  originate  in,  soon  became 
mixed  up  with,  the  question  of  religion,  and  no  state  was 
either  too  gi'eat  or  too  little,  to  feel,  directly  or  indirectly, 
more  or  less  of  its  influence. 

Against  the  reformed  doctrine  and  its  adherents  the 
House  of  Austria  directed,  almost  exclusively,  the  whole 
of  its  immense  political  power.  In  France  the  Keforma-" 
tion  had  enkindled  a  civil  war  which,  under  four  stormy 
reigns,  shook  the  kingdom  to  its  foundations,  brought 
foreign  armies  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  and  for  half 
a  century  rendered  it  the  scene  of  the  most  mournful  dis-'^ 
orders.  It  was  the  Reformation,  too,  that  rendered  the 
Spanish  yoke  intolerable  to  the  Flemings,  and  awakened 
in  them  both  the  desire  and  the  courag'e  to  throw  off  its 
fetters,  while  it  also  principally  furnished  them  with  the 
means  of  their  emancipation.  And  as  to  England,  all  the 
evils  with  which  Philip  II.  threatened  Elizabeth  were 
mainly  intended  in  revenge  for  her  having  taken  his 
Protestant  subjects  under  her  protection,  and  placing 
herself  at  the  head  of  a  religious  party  which  it  was  his 
aim  and  endeavor  to  extirpate.  In  Germany  the  schisms 
in  the  church  produced  also  a  lasting  political  schism, 
which  made  that  country  for  more  than  a  century  the 
theatre  of  confusion,  but  at  the  same  time  threw  up  a 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 


firm  barrier  against  political  oppression.  It  was,  too,  the 
Reformation  principally  that  first  drew  the  northern 
powers,  Denmark  and  Sweden,  into  the  political  system 
of  Europe ;  and  while,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Protestant 
League  was  strengthened  by  their  adhesion,  it,  on  the 
other,  was  indispensable  to  their  interests.  States  which  .. 
hitherto  scarcely  concerned  themselves  with  one  another's 
existence,  acquired  through  the  Reformation  an  attractive 
centre  of  interest,  and  began  to  be  united  by  new  political 
sympathies.  And  as  through  its  influence  new  relations 
sprang  up  between  citizen  and  citizen,  and  between  rulers 
and  subjects,  so  also  entire  states  were  forced  by  it  into 
new  relative  positions.  Thus,  by  a  strange  course  of 
events,  religious  disputes  were  the  means  of  cementing  a 
closer  union  among  the  nations  of  Europe. 

Fearful,  indeed,  and  destructive  was  the  first  move- 
ment in  which  this  general  political  sympathy  announced 
itself ;  a  desolating  war  of  thirty  years,  which,  from  the 
interior  of  Bohemia  to  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt,  and 
from  the  banks  of  the  Po  to  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic,  devas- 
tated whole  countries,  destroyed  harvests,  and  reduced 
towns  and  villages  to  ashes ;  Avhich  opened  a  grave  for 
many  thousand  combatants,  and  for  half  a  century  smoth- 
ered the  glimmering  sparks  of  civilization  in  Germany, 
and  threw  back  the  improving  manners  of  the  country 
into  their  pristine  barbarity  and  wildness.  Yet  out  of 
this  fearful  war  Europe  came  forth  free  and  independent. 
In  it  she  first  learned  to  recognize  herself  as  a  community 
of  nations ;  and  this  intercommunion  of  states,  which  origi- 
nated iu  the  thirty  years'  war,  may  alone  be  suflicient  to 
reconcile  the  philosopher  to  its  horrors.  The  hand  of 
industry  has  slowly  but  gradually  effaced  the  traces  of 
its  ravages,  Avhile  its  beneficent  influence  still  survives ; 
and  this  general  sympathy  among  the  states  of  Europe, 
which  grew  out  of  the  troubles  in  Bohemia,  is  our  guaran- 
tee for  the  continuance  of  that  peace  which  was  the  result 
of  the  war.  As  the  sparks  of  destruction  found  their  way 
from  the  interior  of  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Austria,  to 
kindle  Germany,  France,  and  the  half  of  Europe,  so  also 
will  tlie  torch  of  civilization  make  a  path  for  itself  from 
the  latter  to  enligbteu  the  former  countries. 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  7 

All  this  was  effected  by  religion.  Religion  alone  could 
have  rendered  possible  all  that  was  accomplished,  but  it 
was  far  from  being  the  sole  motive  of  the  war.  Had  not 
private  advantages  and  state  interests  been  closely  con- 
nected with  it,  vain  and  powerless  would  have  been  the 
arguments  of  theologians ;  and  the  cry  of  the  people  would 
never  have  met  with  princes  so  willing  to  espouse  their 
cause,  nor  the  new  doctrines  have  found  such  numerous, 
brave,  and  jDcrsevering  champions.  The  Reformation  is 
undoubtedly  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  invincible 
power  of  truth,  or  of  opinions  which  were  held  as  such. 
The  abuses  in  the  old  church,  the  absurdity  of  many  of 
its  dogmas,  the  extravagance  of  its  requisitions,  necessa^ 
rily  revolted  the  tempers  of  men,  already  half-won  with 
the  promise  of  a  better  light,  and  favorably  disposed  them 
towards  the  new  doctrines.  The  charm  of  independence, 
the  rich  plunder  of  monastic  institutions,  made  the  Re- 
formation attractive  in  the  eyes  of  princes,  and  tended 
not  a  little  to  strengthen  their  inward  convictions. 
Nothing,  however,  but  political  considerations  could  have 
driven  them  to  espouse  it.  Had  not  Charles  V.,  in  the 
intoxication  of  success,  made  an  attempt  on  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  German  States,  a  Protestant  league 
would  scarcely  have  rushed  to  arms  in  defence  of  freedom 
of  belief ;  but  for  the  ambition  of  the  Guises  the  Calvin- 
ists  in  France  would  never  have  beheld  a  Conde  or  a 
Ctligmy  at  tkeir  head.  Without  the  exaction  of  the 
tenth  and  the  twentieth  penny,  the  See  of  Rome  had 
never  lost  the  United  Netherlands.  Princes  fought  in 
self-defence  or  for  aggrandizement,  while  religious  en- 
thusiasm recruited  their  armies  and  opened  to  them  the 
treasures  of  their  subjects.  Of  the  multitude  who  flocked 
to  their  standards,  such  as  were  not  lured  by  the  hope  of 
plunder  imagined  they  were  fighting  for  the  truth,  while 
in  fact  they  M^ere  shedding  their  blood  for  the  personal 
objects  of  their  princes. 

And  well  was  it  for  the  people  that,  on  this  occasion,  their 
interests  coincided  with  those  of  their  princes.  To  this 
coincidence  alone  were  they  indebted  for  their  deliverance 
from  popery.  Well  was  it  also  for  the  rulers  that  the 
subject  contended  too  for  his  own  cause,  while  he  was  figlit- 


8  THE   THIRTY    YBAES'    WAR. 

ing  their  battles.  Fortunately  at  this  date  no  European 
sovereign  was  so  absolute  as  to  be  able,  in  the  pursuit  of 
his  political  designs,  to  dispense  with  the  good-will  of  his 
subjects.  Yet  how  difficult  was  it  to  gain  and  to  set  to 
work  this  good-will !  The  most  impressive  arguments 
drawn  from  reasons  of  state  fall  powerless  on  the  ear  of 
the  subject,  who  seldom  understands,  and  still  more  rarely 
is  interested  in  them.  In  such  circumstances,  the  only 
course  open  to  a  prudent  prince  is  to  connect  the  interests 
of  the  cabinet  with  some  one  that  sits  nearer  to  the 
people's  heart,  if  such  exists,  or  if  not,  to  create  it. 

In  such  a  position  stood  a  greater  part  of  those  princes 
who  embraced  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  By  a  strange 
concatenation  of  events  the  divisions  of  the  Church  were 
associated  with  two  circumstances,  without  which,  in  all 
probability,  they  would  have  had  a  very  different  conclu- 
sion. These  were  the  increasing  power  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  which  threatened  the  liberties  of  Europe,  and  its 
active  zeal  for  the  old  relisrion.  The  first  aroused  the 
princes,  while  the  second  armed  the  people. 

The  abolition  of  a  foreign  jurisdiction  within  their 
own  territories,  the  supremacy  in  ecclesiastical  matters, 
the  stopping  of  the  treasure  which  had  so  long  flowed  to 
Rome,  the  rich  plunder  of  religious  foundations,  were 
tempting  advantages  to  every  sovereign.  Why,  then, 
it  may  be  asked,  did  they  not  oj^erate  with  equal  force 
upon  the  princes  of  the  House  of  Austria.?  What  pre- 
vented this  house,  particularly  in  its  German  branch,  from 
yielding  to  the  pressing  demands  of  so  many  of  its  sub- 
jects, and,  after  the  example  of  other  princes,  enriching 
itself  at  the  expense  of  a  defenceless  clergy  ?  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  credit  that  a  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  the 
liomish  Church  had  any  greater  influence  on  the  pious 
adherence  of  this  house  than  the  opposite  conviction  liad 
on  the  revolt  of  the  Protestant  princes.  In  fact,  several 
circumstances  combined  to  make  the  Austrian  princes 
zealous  supporters  of  popery.  Spain  and  Italy,  from 
wliich  Austria  derived  its  |)rincipal  strength,  were  still 
devoted  to  the  See  of  Rome  with  that  blind  obedience 
wliich,  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Gothic  dynasty,  liad 
been  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Spaniard.     The 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  9 

slightest  approximation  in  a  Spanish  prince  to  the  ob-. 
noxious  tenets  of  Luther  and  Calvin  would  have  alienated 
forever  the  affections  of  his  subjects,  and  a  defection 
from  the  Pope  would  have  cost  him  tlie  kingdom.  A 
Spanish  prince  had  no  alternative  but  orthodoxy  or  abdi- 
cation. The  same  restraint  was  imposed  upon  Austria 
by  her  Italian  dominions,  which  she  was  obliged  to  treat, 
if  possible,  with  even  greater  indulgence;  impatient  as 
they  naturally  Avere  of  a  foreign  yoke,  and  j^ossessing  also 
ready  means  of  shaking  it  off.  In  regard  to  the  latter 
provinces,  moreover,  the  rival  pretensions  of  France,  and 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Pope,  were  motives  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  Emj^eror  from  declaring  in  favor  of  a  party 
which  strove  to  annihilate  the  papal  see,  and  also  to  in- 
duce him  to  show  the  most  active  zeal  in  behalf  of  the 
old  religion.  These  general  considerations,  which  must 
have  been  equally  weighty  with  every  Spanish  monarch, 
were,  in  the  particular  case  of  Charles  V.,  still  further 
enforced  by  peculiar  and  personal  motives.  In  Italy  this 
monarch  had  a  formidable  rival  in  the  King  of  France, 
under  whose  protection  that  country  might  throw  itself 
the  instant  that  Charles  should  incur  the  slightest  sus- 
])icion  of  heresy.  Distrust  on  the  part  of  the  Roman 
Catholics,  and  a  rupture  Avith  the  church,  would  have 
been  fatal  also  to  many  of  his  most  cherished  designs. 
Moreover,  when  Charles  was  first  called  upon  to  make 
.his  election  between  the  two  parties,  the  new  doctrine  had 
not  yet  attained  to  a  full  and  commanding  influence,  and 
there  still  subsisted  a  prospect  of  its  reconciliation  with 
the  old.  In  his  son  and  successor,  Philip  II.,  a  monastic 
education  combined  with  a  gloomy  and  despotic 
disposition  to  generate  an  unmitigated  hostility  to  all  in- 
novations in  religion;  a  feeling  which  the  thought  that  his 
most  formidable  political  opponents  were  also  the  ene- 
mies of  his  faith  Avas  not  calculated  to  weaken.  As  his 
European  possessions,  scattered  as  they  were  over  so 
many  countries,  were  on  all  sides  exposed  to  the  seduc- 
tions of  foreign  opinions,  the  progress  of  the  Reformation 
in  other  quarters  could  not  well  be  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  him.  His  immediate  interests,  therefore,  urged 
him  to  attach  himself  devotedly  to  the  old  church,   in 


10  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

order  to  close  up  the  sources  of  the  heretical  contagion. 
Thus  circumstances  naturally  placed  this  prince  at  the 
head  of  the  league  which  the  Roman  Catholics  formed 
against  the  Reformers.  The  principles  which  had  actu- 
ated the  long  and  active  reigns  of  Charles  V.  and  Philip 
II.  remained  a  law  for  their  successors ;  and  the  more 
the  breach  in  the  church  widened  the  firmer  became 
the  attachment  of  the  Spaniards  to  Roman    Catholicism. 

The  German  line  of  the  House  of  Austria  was  appar- 
ently more  unfettered;  but  in  reality,  though  free  from 
many  of  these  restraints,  it  was  yet  confined  by  others. 
The  possession  of  the  imperial  throne  —  a  dignity  it  was. 
impossible  for  a  Protestant  to  hold  (for  with  what  con- 
sistency could  an  apostate  from  the  Romish  Church  wear 
the  crown  of  a  Roman  Emperor?)  bound  the  successors 
of  Ferdinand  I.  to  the  See  of  Rome.  Ferdinand  himself 
was,  from  conscientious  motives,  heartily  attached  to  it. 
Besides,  the  German  princes  of  the  House  of  Austria  were 
not  powerful  enough  to  dispense  with  the  support  of  Spain, 
which,  however,  they  would  have  forfeited  by  the  least 
show  of  leaning  towards  the  new  doctrines.  The  impe- 
rial dignity,  also,  required  them  to  preserve  the  existing 
political  system  of  Germany,  with  which  the  maintenance 
of  their  own  authority  was  closely  bound  up,  but  which 
it  was  the  aim  of  the  Protestant  League  to  destroy.  If 
to  these  gi'ounds  we  add  the  indifference  of  the  Protes- 
tants to  the  Emperor's  necessities  and  to  the  common 
dangers  of  the  empire,  their  encroachments  on  the  tem- 
poralities of  the  church,  and  their  aggressive  violence 
when  they  became  conscious  of  their  own  power,  we  can 
easily  conceive  how  so  many  concurring  motives  must 
have  determined  the  emperors  to  the  side  of  popery,  and 
how  their  own  interests  came  to  be  intimately  inter- 
woven with  those  of  the  Romish  Church.  As  its  fate 
seemed  to  depend  altogetlier  on  the  part  taken  by  Austria, 
the  princes  of  this  house  came  to  be  regarded  by  all  Eu- 
rope as  the  pillars  of  ]iopcry.  Tlio  hatred,  therefore, 
which  the  Protestants  bore  against  the  latter  was  turned 
exclusively  upon  Austria;  and  the  cause  became  grad- 
ually confounded  with  its  protector. 

But  this  irreconcilable  enemy  of  the   Reformation  — 


THE   THIKTY   YEAES'   WAR.  11 

the  House  of  Austria  —  by  its  ambitious  projects  and 
the  overwhelming  force  which  it  could  bring  to  their  sup- 
port, endangered,  in  no  small  degree,  the  freedom  of  Eu- 
rope, and  more  especially  of  the  German  States.  This 
circumstance  could  not  fail  to  rouse  the  latter  from  their 
security,  and  to  render  them  vigilant  in  self-defence. 
Their  ordinary  resources  wei'e  quite  insufficient  to  resist 
so  formidable  a  power.  Extraordinary  exertions  wei*e 
required  from  their  subjects  ;  and  when  even  these  proved 
far  from  adequate,  they  had  recourse  to  foreign  assist- 
ance ;  and,  by  means  of  a  common  league,  they  endeav- 
ored to  oppose  a  power  which,  singly,  they  were  unable 
to  withstand. 

But  the  strong  political  inducements  which  the  German 
princes  had  to  resist  the  i^retensions  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  naturally,  did  not  extend  to  their  subjects.  It  is 
only  immediate  advantages  or  immediate  evils  that  set 
the  people  in  action,  and  for  these  a  sound  policy  cannot 
wait.  Ill  then  would  it  have  fared  with  these  princes  if 
by  good  fortune  another  effectual  motive  had  not  offered 
itself,  which  roused  the  passions  of  tlie  people,  and  kindled 
in  them  an  enthusiasm  which  raisfht  be  directed  against  the 
political  danger,  as  having  with  it  a  common  cause  of  alarm. 

This  motive  was  their  avowed  hatred  of  the  religion 
which  Austria  protected,  and  their  enthusiastic  attachment 
to  a  doctrine  which  that  house  was  endeavoring  to  extir- 
pate by  fire  and  sword.  Their  attachment  was  ardent, 
their  hatred  invincible.  Religious  fanaticism  anticipates 
even  the  remotest  dangers.  Enthusiasm  never  calculates 
its  sacrifices.  What  the  most  pressing  danger  of  the  state 
could  not  gain  from  the  citizens  was  effected  by  religious 
zeal.  For  the  state,  or  for  the  prince,  few  would  have 
drawn  the  sword  ;  but  for  religion  the  merchant,  the 
artist,  the  peasant,  all  cheerfully  flew  to  arms.  For  the 
state  or  for  the  prince  even  the  smallest  additional  impost 
would  have  been  avoided ;  but  for  religion  the  people 
readily  staked  at  once  life,  fortune,  and  all  earthly  hopes. 
It  trebled  the  contributions  which  flowed  into  the  ex- 
chequer of  the  princes,  and  the  armies  which  marched  to 
the  field;  and,  in  the  ardent  excitement  jiroduced  in  all 
minds  by  the  peril  to  which  their  faith  was  exposed,  the 


12  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

subject  felt  not  the  pressure  of  those  burdens  and  priva- 
tions under  which,  in  cooler  moments,  he  would  have  sunk 
exhausted.  The  terrors  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  and 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's,  procured  for  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  the  Admiral  Coligny,  the  British  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  sup' 
plies  of  men  and  money  from  their  subjects  to  a  degree 
which  at  present  is  inconceivable. 

But,  with  all  their  exertions,  they  would  have  effected 
little  against  a  power  which  was  an  overmatch  for  any 
single  adversary,  however  powerful.  At  this  period  of 
imperfect  policy  accidental  circumstances  alone  could 
determine  distant  states  to  afford  one  another  a  mutual 
support.  The  differences  of  government,  of  laws,  of 
language,  of  manners,  and  of  character,  which  hitherto 
had  kept  whole  nations  and  countries  as  it  were  insulated, 
and  raised  a  lasting  barrier  between  them,  rendered  one 
state  insensible  to  the  distresses  of  another,  save  where 
national  jealousy  could  indulge  a  malicious  joy  at  the 
reverses  of  a  rival.  This  barrier  the  Reformation  de- 
stroyed. An  interest  more  intense  and  more  immediate 
than  national  aggrandizement  or  patriotism,  and  entirely 
independent  of  private  utility,  began  to  animate  whole 
states  and  individual  eitizens ;  an  interest  capable  of  uniting 
numerous  and  distant'^ations,  even  while  it  frequently 
lost  its  force  among  the  subjects  of  the  same  government. 
With  the  inhabitants  of  Geneva,  for  instance,  of  England, 
of  Germany,  or  of  Holland,  the  French  Calvinist  possessed 
a  common  point  of  union  which  he  had  not  with  his  own 
countrymen.  Thus,  in  one  important  particular,  he  ceased 
to  be  the  citizen  of  a  single  state,  and  to  confine  his  views 
and  sympathies  to  his  own  country  alone.  The 
sphere  of  his  views  became  enlarged.  He  began  to 
calculate  his  own  fate  from  that  of  other  nations  of  the 
same  religious  profession,  and  to  make  their  cause  his 
own.  Now  for  the  first  time  did  princes  venture  to 
bring  the  affairs  of  other  countries  before  their  own 
councils ;  for  the  first  time  could  they  hope  for  a  willing 
ear  to  their  own  necessities,  and  prompt  assistance  from 
others.  Foreign  affairs  liad  now  become  a  matter  of 
viomestic  i)olicy,  and  that  aid  was  readily  granted  to  the 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  13 

religious  confederate  which  would  have  been  denied  to 
the  mere  neighbor,  and  still  more  to  the  distant  stranger. 
The  iiiliabitant  of  the  Palatinate  leaves  his  native  fields  to 
liglit  side  by  side  with  his  religious  associate  of  France, 
against  the  common  enemy  of  their  faith.  The  Huguenot 
draws  his  sword  against  the  country  which  persecutes 
him,  and  sheds  his  blood  in  defence  of  the  liberties  of 
Holland.  Swiss  is  arrayed  against  Swiss;  German 
against  German,  to  determine,  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire 
and  the  Seine,  the  succession  of  the  French  crown.  The 
Dane  crosses  the  Eider,  and  the  Swede  the  Baltic,  to 
break  the  chains  which  are  forged  for  Germany. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  wliat  would  have  been  the  fate  of 
the  Reformation,  and  the  liberlies  of  the  empire,  had  not 
the  formidable  power  of  Austria  declared  against  them. 
This,  however,  appears  certain,  that  nothing  so  com- 
pletely damped  the  Austrian  hopes  of  universal  monarchy 
as  the  obstinate  war  which  they  had  to  wage  against  the 
new  religious  opinions.  Under  no  other  circumstances 
could  the  weaker  princes  have  I'oused  their  subjects  to 
such  extraordinary  exertions  against  the  ambition  of 
Austria,  or  the  states  themselves  have  united  so  closely 
against  the  common  enemy. 

The  power  of  Austria  never  stood  higher  thnn  after 
the  victory  wliich  Charles  V.  gained  over  the  Germans  at 
JVIiihlberg,  With  the  treaty  of  Smalcalde  the  freedom  of 
Germany  lay,  as  it  seemed,  prostrate  forever;  but  it 
revived  under  Maurice  of  Saxony,  once  its  most  formid- 
able enemy.  All  the  fruits  of  the  victory  of  Miihlberg 
were  lost  again  in  the  Congress  of  Passau  and  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg ;  and  every  scheme  of  civil  and  religious  oppres- 
sion terminated  in  the  concessions  of  an  equitable  peace. 

The  Diet  of  Augsburg  divided  Germany  into  two 
religious  and  two  political  parties,  by  recognizing  the 
independent  rights  and  existence  of  both.  Hitherto  the 
Protestants  had  been  looked  on  as  rebels  ;  they  were 
henceforth  to  be  regarded  as  brethren  —  not,  indeed, 
through  affection,  but  necessity.     By  the  Interim,*  the 

*  A  system  of  Tlieology,  so  called,  prepared  by  order  of  the  Emptror 
Charles  V.  for  the  use  of  Germany,  to  reeoncile  the  ditt'ereiices  hotweeii  the 
Itomnii  Oalholics  and  the  Lutherans,  Avbicli,  however,  was  rejected  l)y  both 
parties.—  Kd, 


14  THE    THIRTY   years'    WAR. 

Confession  of  Augsburg  was  allowed  temporarily  to  take 
a  sisterly  place  alongside  of  the  olden  religion,  though 
only  as  a  tolerated  neighbor.  To  every  secular  state  was 
conceded  the  right  of  establishing  the  religion  it  acknowl- 
edged as  supreme  and  exclusive  within  its  own  territories, 
and  of  forbidding  the  open  profession  of  its  rival.  Subjects 
were  to  be  free  to  quit  a  country  Avhere  their  own  religion 
was  not  tolerated.  The  doctrines  of  Luther  for  the  lirst 
time  received  a  positive  sanction ;  and  if  they  were 
trampled  under  foot  in  Bavaria  and  Austria  they  pre- 
dominated in  Saxony  and  Thur.ingia.  But  the  sovereigns 
alone  were  to  determine  what  form  of  religion  should 
prevail  within  their  territories;  the  feelings  of  subjects 
who  had  no  representatives  in  the  Diet  were  little  at- 
tended to  in  the  pacification.  In  the  ecclesiastical 
territories,  indeed,  where  the  unreformed  religion  enjoyed 
an  undisputed  supremacy,  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion  was  obtained  for  all  who  had  previously  em- 
braced the  Protestant  doctrines;  but  this  indulgence 
rested  only  on  the  personal  guai-antee  of  Ferdinand,  King 
of  the  Romans,  by  whose  endeavors  chiefly  this  peace 
was  effected ;  a  guarantee,  which,  being  rejected  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  members  of  the  Diet,  and  only  inserted 
in  the  treaty  under  their  protest,  could  not  of  course  have 
the  force  of  law. 

If  it  had  been  oinnions  only  that  thus  divided  the 
minds  of  men,  with  what  indifference  would  all  have 
regarded  the  division  !  But  on  these  opinions  depended 
riches,  dignities,  and  rights;  and  it  was  this  Avhich  so 
deeply  aggravated  the  evils  of  division.  Of  two  brothers, 
as  it  were,  who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  a  paternal  inherit- 
ance in  common,  one  now  remained,  while  the  other  Avas 
compelled  to  leave  his  father's  house,  and  hence  arose  the 
necessity  of  dividing  the  patrimony.  For  this  separa- 
tion, which  he  could  not  have  foreseen,  the  father 
had  made  no  ])rovision.  By  the  beneficent  donations  of 
pious  ancestors  the  riches  of  the  church  had  been 
accumulating  through  a  thousand  years,  and  these 
benefactors  were  as  much  the  ])rogenitors  of  the 
d('))arting  brother  as  of  him  wiio  rcunained.  AVas  the 
right  of  inheritance  then  to  be  limited  to  the  paternal 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    AVAR.  15 

house,  or  to  be  extended  to  blood  ?  The  gifts  had  been 
made  to  the  cliuvch  in  communion  with  Rome,  because  at 
that  time  no  othei'  existed,  —  to  the  first  born,  as  it  were, 
because  he  was  as  yet  the  only  son.  Was  then  a  riglit 
of  primogeniture  to  be  admitted  in  the  church,  as  in 
noble  families?  Were  the  pretensions  of  one  party  to  be 
favored  by  a  prescription  from  times  when  the  claims  of 
the  other  could  not  have  come  into  existence.  Could  the 
Lutherans  be  justly  excluded  from  these  possessions,  to 
which  the  benevolence  of  their  forefathers  had  con- 
tributed, merely  on  the  ground  that,  at  the  date  of  their 
foundation,  the  differences  between  Luthcranism  and 
Komanisni  were  unknown  ?  Both  parties  have  disputed, 
and  still  dispute,  with  equal  i>lausibility,  on  these  points. 
Both  alike  have  found  it  difficult  to  prove  their  right. 
Law  can  be  applied  only  to  conceivable  cases,  and  per- 
haps sj^iritual  foundations  are  not  among  the  number  of 
these,  and  still  less  where  the  conditions  of  the  founders 
generally  extended  to  a  system  of  doctrines ;  for  how  is 
it  conceivable  that  a  permanent  endowment  should  be 
made  of  opinions  left  open  to  change  ? 

What  law  cannot  decide  is  usually  determined  by 
might,  and  such  was  the  case  here.  The  one  party  held 
firmly  all  that  could  no  longer  be  Avrested  from  it  —  the 
other  defended  what  it  still  possessed.  All  the  bishoprics 
and  abbeys  Avhich  had  been  secularized  before  the  jieace 
remained  with  the  Protestants ;  but,  by  an  exjtress  clause, 
the  unreformed  Catholics  provided  that  none  should 
thereafter  be  secularized.  Every  impropriator  of  an  ec- 
clesiastical foundation,  Avho  held  immediately  of  the  Em- 
pire, whether  elector,  bishop,  or  abbot,  forfeited  his  ben- 
efice and  dignity  the  moment  he  embraced  the  Protestant 
belief;  he  was  obliged  in  that  event  instantly  to  resign 
its  emoluments,  and  the  chapter  was  to  proceed  to  a  new 
election,  exactly  as  if  his  place  had  been  vacated  by  death. 
Bv  this  sacred  anchor  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Reservation 
{IleservafMm  Ji!cdesia^t!cimi),  which  makes  the  temporal 
existence  of  a  spiritual  prince  entirely  depend  on  his  fidel- 
ity to  the  olden  religion,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  Germany  is  still  held  fast ;  and  precarious,  indeed, 
would  be  its  situation  were   this  anchor  to   give    way. 


16  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

The  principle  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Reservation  was 
strongly  opposed  by  the  Protestants  ;  and  tliough  it  was 
at  last  adopted  into  the  treaty  of  peace,  its  insertion  was 
qualified  with  the  declaration,  that  parties  had  come  to 
no  final  determination  on  the  point.  Could  it  then  be 
more  binding  on  the  Protestants  than  Ferdinand's  guar- 
antee  in  favor  of  Protestant  subjects  of  ecclesiasti(;al 
states  was  upon  the  Roman  Catholics?  Thus  were  two 
important  subjects  of  dispute  left  unsettled  in  the  treaty 
of  peace,  and  by  them  the  war  was  rekindled. 

Such  was  the  position  of  things  with  regard  to  relig- 
ious toleration  and  ecclesiastical  })roperty;  it  was  the 
same  with  regard  to  rights  and  dignities.  The  existing 
German  system  provided  only  for  one  church,  because 
one  only  was  in  existence  when  that  system  was  framed. 
The  church  had  now  divided  ;  the  Diet  had  broken  into 
two  religious  parties ;  was  the  whole  system  of  the  Em- 
pire still  exclusively  to  follow  the  one?  The  emperors 
had  hitherto  been  members  of  the  Romish  Church,  be- 
cause till  now  that  religion  had  no  rival.  But  was  it  his 
connection  with  Rome  which  constituted  a  German  em- 
jieror,  or  was  it  not  rather  Germany  which  was  to  be  re])- 
resented  in  its  head  ?  The  Protestants  were  now  spread 
over  the  whole  Empire,  and  how  could  they  justly  still 
be  represented  by  an  unbroken  line  of  Roman  Catholic 
emperors?  In  the  Imperial  Chamber  the  German  States 
judge  themselves,  for  they  elect  the  judges;  it  was  tlie 
very  end  of  its  institution  that  they  should  do  so,  in 
order  that  equal  justice  should  be  dispensed  to  all ;  but 
would  this  be  still  possible  if  the  representatives  of  both 
professions  were  not  equally  admissible  to  a  seat  in  the 
Chamber?  That  one  religion  only  existed  in  Germany  at 
the  time  of  its  establishment  was  accidental ;  tliat  no  one 
estate  should  have  the  means  of  legally  o])pressing  another, 
Avas  the  essential  purpose  of  the  institution.  Xow  tliis 
object  would  be  entirely  frustrated  if  one  religious  party 
were  to  have  the  exclusive  power  of  deciding  for  the 
other.  Must,  then,  tlie  design  be  sacriliccd  because!  tjiat 
wliich  was  merely  accidental  had  changed?  Witli  great 
dilHculty  the  Protestants,  at  last,  obtained  for  thereiire- 
rentatives  of  their  religion  a  ]>lace  in  the  Supreme  Council, 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  17 

but  still  there  was  far  from  being  a  perfect  equality 
of  voices.  To  this  duy  no  Protestant  prince  has  been 
raised  to  the  imperial  throne. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  equality  which  the  peace 
of  Ausrsburor  was  to  have  establislied  between  the  two 
German  churches,  the  Roman  Catliolic  had  unquestionably 
still  the  advantage.  All  that  the  Lutheran  Church  gained 
by  it  was  toleration;  all  that  the  Romish  Church  con- 
ceded was  a  sacrifice  to  necessity,  not  an  offering  to 
justice.  Very  far  was  it  from  being  a  peace  between  two 
equal  powers,  but  a  truce  between  a  sovereign  and 
unconquered  rebels.  F'rom  this  principle  all  the  ]iroceed- 
ings  of  the  Roman  Catholics  against  the  Protestants  seemed 
to  flow,  and  still  continue  to  do  so.  To  join  the  reformed 
faith  was  still  a  crime,  since  it  was  to  be  visited  with  so 
severe  a  penalty  as  that  which  the  Ecclesiastical  Reserva- 
tion held  suspended  over  the  apostacy  of  the  sjuritual 
princes.  Even  to  the  last  the  Romish  Church  preferred 
to  risk  the  loss  of  everything  by  force  than  voluntarily 
to  yield  the  smallest  matter  to  justice.  The  loss  was 
accidental  and  might  be  repaired ;  but  the  abandonment 
of  its  pretensions,  the  concession  of  a  single  point  to  the 
Protestants,  would  shake  the  foundations  of  the  church 
itself.  Even  in  the  treaty  of  peace  this  principle  was  not 
lost  sight  of.  Whatever  in  this  peace  was  yielded  to  the 
Protestants  was  always  under  condition.  It  was  ex- 
pressly declared  that  affairs  were  to  remain  on  the 
stipulated  footing  only  till  the  next  general  council, 
which  was  to  be  called  with  the  view  of  effecting  a 
union  between  the  two  confessions.  Then  only,  when 
this  last  attempt  should  have  failed,  was  the  religious 
treaty  to  become  valid  and  conclusive.  However  little 
hope  there  might  be  of  such  a  reconciliation,  however  little 
perhaps  the  Romanists  themselves  were  in  earnest  with  it, 
still  it  was  somethinsc  to  have  cloirged  the  peace  with 
these  stipulations. 

Thus  this  religious  treaty,  which  was  to  extinguish  for- 
ever the  flames  of  civil  war,  was,  in  fact,  but  a  temporary 
truce,  extorted  by  force  and  necessity;  not  dictated  by 
justice,  nor  emanating  from  just  notions  either  of  religion 
or  toleration.     A  religious  treaty  of  this  kind  the  Roman 


18  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Catholics  were  as  incapable  of  granting,  to  be  candid,  as  in 
trutli  the  Lutherans  were  unqualitied  to  receive.  Far  from 
evincing  a  tolerant  spirit  towards  the  Roman  Catliolics, 
when  it  was  in  their  power,  tliey  even  oppressed  tlie  Cal- 
vinists;  who  indeed  just  as  little  deserved  toleration,  since 
they  were  unwilling  to  practise  it.  For  such  a  peace  the 
times  Avere  not  yet  ripe  —  the  minds  of  men  not  yet 
sufficiently  enlightened.  How  could  one  party  expect 
from  another  what  itself  was  incapable  of  performing? 
What  each  side  saved  or  gained  by  the  treaty  of 
Augsburg  it  owed  to  the  imposing  attitude  of  strength 
which  it  maintained  at  the  time  of  its  negotiation. 
What  was  won  by  force  was  to  be  maintained  also  by 
force ;  if  the  peace  was  to  be  permanent,  the  two  parties 
to  it  must  preserve  the  same  relative  positions.  The 
boundaries  of  the  two  churches  had  been  marked  out 
witli  the  sword;  with  the  sword  they  must  be  preserved, 
or  woe  to  that  party  Avhich  should  be  first  disarmed  !  A 
sad  and  fearful  ]irospect  for  the  trantpiillity  of  Germany 
when  peace  itself  bore  so  threatening  an  aspect. 

A  momentary  lull  now  pervaded  the  empire ;  a  tran- 
sitory bond  of  concord  appeared  to  unite  its  scattered 
limbs  into  one  body,  so  that  for  a  time  a  feeling  also  for 
the  common  weal  returned.  But  the  division  had  pene- 
trated its  inmost  being,  and  to  restore  its  original  harmony 
was  impossible.  Carefully  as  the  treaty  of  ])eace  appeared 
to  have  defined  the  rights  of  both  parties,  its  interpreta- 
tion was  nevertheless  the  subject  of  many  disputes.  In 
the  heat  of  conflict  it  had  produced  a  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties; it  covered,  not  extinguished,  the  fire,  and  unsatisfied 
claims  remained  on  either  side.  The  Romanists  imagined 
they  had  lost  too  much,  the  Protestants  that  they  had 
gained  too  little ;  and  the  treaty  which  neither  party 
could  venture  to  violate  was  interpreted  by  each  in  its 
own  favor. 

The  seizure  of  the  ecclesiastical  benefices,  the  motive 
which  had  so  strongly  tempted  the  majority  of  the 
l*rotestant  princes  to  embrace  tlie  doctrines  of  Luther, 
was  not  less  powerful  after  than  before  the  peace  ;  of 
those  whose  founders  had  not  held  their  fiefs  imme- 
diately of  the  empire,  such  as  were  not  already  in  their 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  19 

possession  would  it  was  evident  soon  be  so.  The  whole 
of  Lower  Germany  was  already  secularized;  and  if  it  were 
otherwise  in  Upper  Germany,  it  was  owing  to  the  vehe- 
ment resistance  of  the  Catholics,  who  had  there  the  pre- 
ponderance. Each  party,  where  it  was  the  most  powerful, 
oppressed  the  adherents  of  the  other  ;  the  ecclesiastical 
princes  in  particular,  as  the  most  defenceless  members  of 
the  empire,  were  incessantly  tormented  by  the  ambition 
of  their  Protestant  neighbors.  Those  who  were  too 
weak  to  repel  force  by  force  took  refuge  under  the  wings 
of  justice ;  and  the  complaints  of  spoliation  were  heaped 
up  against  the  Protestants  in  the  Imperial  Chamber, 
which  was  ready  enough  to  pursue  the  accused  Mith 
judgments,  but  found  too  little  support  to  carry  them 
into  effect.  The  peace  which  stipulated  for  complete 
religious  toleration  for  the  dignitaries  of  the  Empire,  had 
provided  also  for  tlie  subject,  by  enabling  him,  without 
interruption,  to  leave  the  country  in  which  the  exercise 
of  his  religion  was  prohibited.  But  from  the  wrongs 
which  the  "violence  of  a  sovereign  might  inflict  on  an 
obnoxious  subject;  from  the  nameless  o])pressions  by 
which  he  might  harass  and  annoy  the  emigrant;  from 
the  artful  snares  in  which  subtilty  combined  with  power 
might  enmesh  him  —  from  these  the  dead  letter  of  the 
treaty  could  afford  him  no  protection.  The  Catholic 
subject  of  Protestant  princes  complained  loudly  of 
violations  of  tlie  religious  peace  —  the  Lutherans  still 
more  loudly  of  the  oppression  they  experienced  under 
their  Romanist  suzerains.  The  rancor  and  animosities  of 
theologians  infused  a  poison  into  every  occurrence,  how- 
ever inconsiderable,  and  inflamed  the  minds  of  the  jicople. 
Happy  would  it  have  been  had  this  theological  hatred 
exhausted  its  zeal  upon  the  common  enemy,  instead  of 
venting  its  virus  on  the  adherents  of  a  kindred  faith ! 

Unanimity  amongst  the  Protestants  might,_by  preserving 
the  balance  between  the  contending  parties,  have  pro- 
loUiTed  the  peace;  but,  as  if  to  complete  the  confusion, 
all  "concord  was  quickly  broken.  The  doctrines  which 
had  been  propagated  by  Zuingli  in  Zurich,  and  by  Calvm 
in  Geneva,  soon  spread  to  Germany,  and  divided  the 
Protestants  among  themselves,  with  little  in  unison  save 


20  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

their  common  hatred  to  popery.  The  Protestants  of  this 
date  bore  but  slight  resemblance  to  those  who,  fifty  years 
before,  drew  up  the  Confession  of  Augsburg;  and  the 
cause  of  the  cliange  is  to  be  sought  in  that  Confession 
itself.  It  liad  prescribed  a  positive  boundary  to  the 
Protestant  faith,  before  the  newly-awakened  s]iirit  of 
inquiry  had  satisfied  itself  as  to  the  Umits  it  ought  to  set; 
and  the  Protestants  seemed  unwittingly  to  have  thrown 
away  much  of  the  advantage  acquired  by  their  rejection 
of  i)opery.  Common  complaints  of  the  Romish  hierarchy 
and  of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  a  common  disapprobation 
of  its  dogmas,  formed  a  sufficient  centre  of  union  for  the 
Protestants ;  but  not  content  with  this,  they  sought  a 
rallying  point  iif  the  promulgation  of  a  new  and  positive 
creed,  in  which  they  sought  to  embody  the  distinctions, 
the  privileges,  and  the  essence  qi  the  church,  and  to  this 
they  referred  the  convention  entered  into  with  their 
op]3onents.  It  was  as  professors  of  this  creed  that  they 
had  acceded  to  the  treaty ;  and  in  the  benefits  of  this 
peace  the  advocates  of  the  Confession  were  alone  entitled 
to  participate.  In  any  case,  therefore,  the  situation  of 
its  adherents  was  embarrassing.  If  a  blind  obedience 
were  yielded  to  the  dicta  of  the  Confession,  a  lasting 
bound  would  be  set  to  the  spirit  of  inquiry ;  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  dissented  from  the  formulfe  agreed 
upon,  the  point  of  union  would  be  lost.  Unfortunately 
both  incidents  occurred,  and  the  evil  results  of  both 
were  quickly  felt.  One  party  rigorously  adhered  to  the 
original  symbol  of  faith,  and  the  other  abandoned  it,  only 
to  adopt  another  Avith  equal  exclusiveness. 

Notliing  could  have  furnished  the  common  enemy  a 
more  plausible  defence  of  his  cause  than  this  dissension ; 
no  spectacle  could  have  been  more  gratifying  to  him  than 
the  rancor  with  which  the  Protestants  alternately  per- 
secuted each  other.  Who  could  condemn  the  lloman 
Catliolics  if  they  laughed  at  the  audacity  with  which  the 
Reformers  had  presumed  to  announce  the  only  true 
belief?  —  if  from  Protestants  they  borrowed  tlie  weapons 
against  Protestants?  —  if,  in  the  midst  of  this  clashing  of 
opinions,  they  held  fast  to  the  authority  of  their  own 
church,   for  Avhich,  in   part,   there  spoke   an   honorable 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS '   WAR.  21 

antiquity,  and  a  yet  more  honorable  plurality  of  voices, 
Bnt  this  division  placed  the  Protestants  in  still  more 
serious  embarrassments.  As  the  covenants  of  the  treaty 
applied  only  to  the  partisans  of  the  Confession,  tlieir 
opponents,  with  some  reason,  called  upon  them  to  explain 
Avho  were  to  be  recognized  as  the  adherents  of  that 
creed.  The  Lutherans  could  not,  without  offending 
conscience,  include  the  Calvinists  in  their  communion  ; 
except  at  the  risk  of  converting  a  useful  friend  into  a 
dangerous  enemy,  could  they  exclude  them.  This  un- 
fortunate difference  opened  a  way  for  the  machinations 
of  the  Jesuits  to  sow  distrust  between  both  parties,  and 
to  destroy  the  unity  of  tlieir  measures.  Fettered  by  the 
double  fear  of  their  direct  adversaries,  and  of  their 
opponents  among  themselves,  the  Protestants  lost  for- 
ever the  opportunity  of  placing  their  church  on  a  perfect 
equality  with  the  Catholic.  All  these  difficulties  M'ould 
have  been  avoided,  and  the  defection  of  the  Calvinists 
would  not  have  prejudiced  the  common  cause,  if  the  ])oint 
of  union  had  been  placed  simply  in  the  abandonment  of 
Romanism,  instead  of  in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg. 

But  however  divided  on  other  points,  they  concurred 
in  this  —  that  the  security  which  had  resulted  from 
equality  of  power  could  only  be  maintained  by  the 
preservation  of  that  balance.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  con- 
tinual reforms  of  one  party,  and  the  oj)posing  measures 
of  the  other,  kept  both  upon  the  watch,  while  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  religious  treaty  was  a  never-ending 
subject  of  dispute.  Each  party  maintained  that  eveiy 
ste]^  taken  by  its  opponent  was  an  infraction  of  the  peace, 
while  of  every  movement  of  its  own  it  was  asserted  tliat 
it  was  essential  to  its  maintenance.  Yet  all  the  measures 
of  the  Catholics  did  not,  as  their  opponents  alleged, 
proceed  from  a  spirit  of  encroachment  —  many  of  them 
were  the  necessary  precautions  of  self-defence.  The 
Protestants  had  shown  unequivocally  enough  what  the 
Romanists  might  expect  if  they  were  unfortunate  enough 
to  become  the  weaker  party.  The  greediness  of  the 
former  for  the  property  of  the  church,  gave  no  reason  to 
expect  indulgence;  —  their  bitter  hatred  left  no  hope  of 
magnanimity  or  forbearance. 


22  THE    THIKTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

But  the  Protestants,  likewise,  were  excusable  if  they, 
too,  placed  little  confidence  in  the  sincerity  of  the  Roman 
Catholics.  By  the  treacherous  and  inhuman  treatment 
which  their  brethren  in  Spain,  France,  and  the  Nether- 
lands had  suffered  ;  by  the  disgraceful  subterfuge  of  the 
Komish  princes,  who  held  that  the  Pope  had  power  to 
relieve  them  from  the  obligation  of  the  most  solemn 
oaths ;  and  above  all,  by  the  detestable  maxim,  that  faith 
was  not  to  be  kejjt  with  heretics,  the  Roman  Church,  in 
the  eyes  of  all  honest  men,  had  lost  its  honor.  No 
engagement,  no  oath,  however  sacred,  from  a  Roman 
Catholic,  could  satisfy  a  Protestant.  What  security 
then  could  the  religious  peace  afford,  when,  throughout 
Germany,  the  Jesuits  represented  it  as  a  measure  of 
mere  temporary  convenience,  and  in  Rome  itself  it  was 
solemnly  repudiated. 

The  General  Council,  to  which  reference  had  been 
made  in  the  treaty,  had  already  been  held  in  the  city  of 
Trent ;  but,  as  might  have  been  foreseen,  without  accom- 
modating the  religious  differences,  or  taking  a  single  step 
to  effect  such  accommodation,  and  even  without  being 
attended  by  the  Protestants.  The  latter,  indeed,  were 
now  solemnly  excommunicated  by  it  in  the  name  of  the 
church,  whose  representative  the  Council  gave  itself  out 
to  be.  Could,  then,  a  secular  treaty,  extorted  moreover 
by  force  of  arms,  afford  them  adequate  protection  against 
the  ban  of  the  church  ;  a  treaty,  too,  based  on  a  condition 
which  the  decision  of  the  Council  seemed  entirely  to  abol- 
ish ?  There  was  then  a  show  of  right  for  violating  the  peace, 
if  only  the  Romanists  possessed  the  power;  and  hence- 
forward the  Protestants  were  protected  by  nothing  but 
the  respect  for  their  formidable  array. 

Other  circumstances  combined  to  augment  this  distrust. 
S)>ain,  on  whose  support  the  Romanists  in  Germany 
chiefly  relied,  was  engaged  in  a  bloody  conflict  with  the 
Flemings.  By  it  the  flower  of  the  Spanish  troops  were 
drawn  "to  the  confines  of  Germany.  With  -what  ease 
might  they  be  introduced  within  the  empire,  if  a  decisive 
stroke  should  render  their  ])resence  necessary  ?  Germany 
was  at  that  time  a  magazine  of  war  for  nearly  all  the 
powers  of  Europe.      The  religious  war  had  crowded  it 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  23 

with  soldiers,  whom  the  peace  left  destitute ;  its  many 
independent  princes  found  it  easy  to  assemble  armias, 
and  afterwards,  for  tlie  sake  of  gain  or  tlie  interests  of 
party,  hire  them  out  to  other  powers,  Witli  German 
troops  Philip  II.  waged  war  against  the  Netherlands. 
and  with  German  troops  they  defended  themselves, 
Every  such  levy  in  Germany  was  a  subject  of  alarm  to 
the  one  party  or  the  other,  since  it  might  be  intended  for 
their  oppression.  Tlie  arrival  of  an  ambassador,  an 
extraordinary  legate  of  the  Pope,  a  conference  of  princes, 
every  unusual  incident,  must,  it  was  thought,  be  pregnant 
with  destruction  to  some  party.  Thus,  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  stood  Germany,  her  hand  upon  the  sword ;  every 
rustle  of  a  leaf  alarmed  her. 

Ferdinand  I.,  King  of  Hungary,  and  his  excel- 
lent son,  Maximilian  IL,  held  at  tliis  memorable  epoch 
the  reins  of  government.  With  a  heart  full  of 
shicerity,  with  a  truly  heroic  patience,  had  Ferdinand 
brought  about  the  religious  peace  of  Augsburg,  and 
afterwards,  in  the  Council  of  Trent,  labored  assiduously, 
though  vainly,  at  tlie  ungrateful  task  of  reconciling  the 
two  religions.  Abandoned  by  his  nephew,  Philip  of 
S])ain,  and  hard  pressed  both  in  Hungary  and  Transyl- 
vania by  the  victorious  armies  of  the  Turks,  it  was  not 
likely  that  this  emperor  would  entertain  the  idea  of 
violating  the  religious  peace,  and  thereby  destroying  his 
own  painful  work.  The  heavy  expenses  of  the  per- 
petually recurring  war  with  Turkey  could  not  be  defrayed 
by  the  meagre  contributions  of  his  exhausted  hereditary 
dominions.  He  stood,  tlierefore,  in  need  of  the  assistance 
of  the  whole  empire  ;  and  the  religious  peace  alone  pre- 
served in  one  body  the  otherwise  divided  empire. 
Financial  necjssities  made  the  Protestant  as  needful  to 
him  as  the  Romanist,  and  imposed  upon  him  the 
.  obligation  of  treating  both  parties  with  equal  justice, 
which,  amidst  so  many  contradictory  claims,  was  truly  a 
colossal  task.  Very  far,  however,  was  tlie  result  from 
answering  his  expectations.  His  indulgence  of  the 
Protestants  served  only  to  bring  upon  his  successors  a 
war,  which  death  saved  himself  the  mortification  of 
witnessing.      Scarcely  more  fortunate  was  his  son  Maxi- 


24  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

milian,  with  whom  perhaps  tlie  pressure  of  circuinstances 
was  tlie  only  obstacle,  and  a  longer  life  perliai)S  the  only 
want  to  his  establishing  the  new  religion  upon  the 
imperial  throne.  Necessity  had  taught  the  father  for- 
bearance towards  the  Protestants  —  necessity  and  justice 
dictated  the  same  course  to  the  son.  The  grandson  had 
reason  to  repent  that  he  neither  listened  to  justice  nor 
yielded  to  necessity. 

Maximiliafi  left  six  sons,  of  whom  the  eldest,  the  Arch- 
duke Rodolph,  inherited  his  dominions,  and  ascended 
the  imperial  throne.  The  other  brothers  were  put  off 
with  petty  appanages.  A  few  mesne  fiefs  were  held  by  a 
collateral  Ijranch,  which  had  their  uncle,  Charles  of 
Styria,  at  its  head  ;  and  even  these  were  afterwards 
under  his  son,  Ferdinand  II.,  incori)orated  with  the  rest 
of  the  family  dominions.  With  this  exce])tion,  the  whole 
of  the  imposing  power  of  Austi-ia  was  now  wielded  by  a 
single  but  unfortunately  weak  hand. 

Rodolph  II.  was  not  devoid  of  those  virtues  Avhich 
might  have  gained  him  the  esteem  of  mankind  had  the 
lot  of  a  private  station  fallen  to  him.  His  character  was 
mild;  he  loved  peace  and  the  sciences,  particularly 
astronomy,  natural  history,  chemistry,  and  the  study  of 
antiquities.  To  these  he  applied  with  a  passionate  zeal, 
which  at  the  very  time  when  the  critical  posture  of 
affairs  demanded  all  his  attention,  and  his  exhausted 
finances  the  most  rigid  economy,  diverted  his  attention 
from  state  affairs,  and  involved  him  in  pernicious 
expenses.  His  taste  for  astronomy  soon  lost  itself  in 
those  astrological  reveries  to  which  timid  and  melancholy 
temperaments  like  his  are  but  too  disposed.  This,  to- 
gether with  a  youth  passed  in  Spain,  opened  his  ears  to 
the  evil  counsels  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  iniluence  of  the 
Spanish  court,  by  which  at  last  he  was  wholly  governed. 
Ruled  by  tastes  so  little  in  accordance  with  the  dignity 
of  his  station,  and  alarmed  by  ridiculous  prophecies,  he 
withdrew,  after  the  Spanish  custom,  from  the  eyes  of  his 
subjects,  to  bury  lumself  amidst  his  gems  and  antiques, 
or  to  make  experiments  in  his  laboratory,  while  the  most 
fatal  discords  loosened  all  the  bands  of  the  empire,  and 
the  flames  of  rebellion  began  to  burst  out  at  the  very 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  25 

footsteps  of  his  throne.  All  access  to  his  person  was 
denied,  the  most  urgent  matters  were  neglected.  The 
prospect  of  the  rich  inheritance  of  Spain  was  closed 
against  him  while  he  was  trying  to  make  up  his  mind  to 
offer  his  hand  to  the  Infanta  Isabella.  A  fearful  anarchy- 
threatened  the  Eni])ire,  for,  though  without  an  heir  of  his 
own  body,  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to  allow  the  election 
of  a  King  of  the  Romans.  The  Austrian  States  renounced 
their  allegiance,  Hungary  and  Transylvania  threw  off  his 
supremacy,  and  Bohemia  was  not  slow  in  following  their 
example.  The  descendant  of  the  once  so  formidable 
Charles  V.  was  in  perpetual  danger,  either  of  losing  one 
part  of  his  possessions  to  the  Turks,  or  anotlier  to  the 
Protestants,  and  of  sinking  beyond  redemption  under  the 
formidable  coalition  Avhich  a  great  monarch  of  Europe 
had  formed  against  him.  The  events  which  now  took 
place  in  the  interior  of  Germany  were  such  as  usually 
happened  when  either  the  tlirone  was  without  an  em]ieror 
or  the  emperor  without  a  sense  of  his  imperial  dignity. 
Outraged  or  abandoned  by  their  liead,  the  states  of  the 
empire  were  left  to  help  themselves;  and  alliances 
among  themselves  must  supply  the  defective  authority  of 
the  eniperor.  Germany  was  divided  into  two  leagues, 
which  stood  in  arms  arrayed  against  each  other :  between 
both,  Rodolph,  the  despised  o])ponent  of  the  one,  and  the 
im])otent  ])rotector  of  the  other,  remained  irresolute  and 
useless,  equally  unable  to  destroy  the  former  or  to  com- 
mand the  latter.  What  had  the  Empire  to  look  for  from 
a  prince  incapable  even  of  defending  his  hereditary  do- 
minions against  its  domestic  enemies  ?  To  prevent  the 
utter  ruin  of  the  House  of  Austria,  his  own  family 
combined  against  him ;  and  a  powerful  party  threw  itself 
into  the  arms  of  his  brother.  Driven  from  his  hereditary 
dominions,  nothing  was  noAV  left  him  to  lose  but  the 
imperial  dignity ;  and  he  was  only  spared  this  last  dis- 
grace by  a  timely  death. 

At  this  critical  moment,  when  only  a  sup]>le  policy, 
united  with  a  vigorous  arm,  could  have  maintained  the 
tranquillity  of  the  Empire,  its  evil  genius  oave  it  a  Ro- 
dolph for  emperor.  At  a  more  peaceful  period  the  Ger- 
manic Union  would  hav&  managed  its  own  interests,  and 


26  THE   THIRTY   YEAIIS'   WAR. 

Rodolph,  like  so  many  others  of  liis  rank,  might  have 
hidden  his  deficiencies  in  a  mysterious  obscurity.  But 
the  urgent  demand  for  the  qualities  in  whicli  he  was 
most  deficient  revealed  his  incapacity.  The  position  of 
Germany  called  for  an  emperor  who,  by  his  known 
energies,  could  give  weight  to  liis  resolves;  and  the 
hereditary  dominions  of  Rodolph,  considerable  as  tliey 
were,  Avere  at  present  in  a  situation  to  occasion  the 
greatest  embarrassment  to  the  governors. 

The  Austrian  princes,  it  is  true,  were  Roman  Cath- 
olics, and,  in  addition  to  that,  the  supporters  of  popery, 
but  their  countries  were  far  from  being  so.  The  re- 
foi-med  opinions  had  penetrated  even  these,  and,  favored 
by  Ferdinand's  necessities  and  Maximilian's  mildness, 
had  met  with  a  rapid  success.  The  Austrian  provinces 
exhibited  in  miniature  what  Germany  did  on  a  larger 
scale.  The  great  nobles  and  the  ritter  class  or  knights 
were  chiefly  evangelical,  and  in  the  cities  the  Protestants 
had  a  decided  preponderance.  If  they  succeeded  in 
bringing  a  few  of  their  party  into  the  country,  they 
contrived  imperceptibly  to  fill  all  places  of  trust  and  the 
magistracy  with  their  own  adherents,  and  to  exclude  the 
Catholics.  Against  the  numerous  order  of  the  nobles 
and  knights,  and  the  deputies  from  the  towns,  the  voice 
of  a  few  prelates  was  powerless ;  and  the  unseemly 
ridicule  and  offensive  contempt  of  the  former  soon  drove 
them  entirely  from  the  provincial  diets.  Thus  the  whole 
of  the  iVustrian  Diet  had  imperceptibly  become  Protes- 
tant, and  the  Reformation  was  making  rapid  strides 
towards  its  public  recognition.  The  prince  was  depend- 
ent on  the  Estates,  who  had  it  in  their  power  to  grant 
or  refuse  supplies.  Accordingly,  they  availed  themselves 
of  the  financial  necessities  of  Ferdinand  and  his  son  to 
extort  one  religious  concession  after  another.  To  the 
nobles  and  knights  Maximilian  at  last  conceded  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion,  but  only  within  their  own 
territories  and  castles.  The  intcnnperatc  enthusiasm  of 
the  Protestant  preachers  overstej)ped  the  boun<laries 
which  prudence  had  prescribed.  In  defiance  of  the 
express  prohibition,  several  of  them  ventured  to  preach 
publicly,  not  only  in  the  towns,  but  in  Vienna  itself,  and 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  27 

the  people  flocked  in  crowds  to  this  new  doctrine,  the 
best  seasoning  of  which  was  personality  and  abuse. 
Thus  continued  food  was  supi:)lied  to  fanaticism,  and  the 
hatred  of  two  churches,  that  were  such  near  neighbors, 
was  farther  envenomed  by  the  sting  of  an  imj^ure  zeal. 

Among  the  hereditary  dominions  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  Hungary  and  Transylvania  were  the  most  un- 
stable and  the  most  diflicult  to  retain.  The  impossibility 
of  holding  these  two  countries  against  the  neighboring 
and  overwhelming  power  of  the  Turks  had  already  driven 
Ferdinand  to  the  inglorious  expedient  of  recognizing,  by 
an  annual  tribute,  the  Porte's  supremacy  over  Transylva- 
nia,—  a  shameful  confession  of  weakness,  and  a  still  more 
dangerous  temptation  to  the  turbulent  nobility,  Avhen  they 
fancied  they  had  any  reason  to  complain  of  their  master. 
Not  without  conditions  had  the  Hungarians  submitted 
to  the  House  of  Austria.  They  asserted  the  elective 
freedom  of  their  crown,  and  boldly  contended  for  all 
those  prerogatives  of  their  order  which  are  inseparable 
from  this  freedom  of  election.  The  near  neighborhood 
of  Turkey,  the  facility  of  changing  masters  with  impu- 
nity, encouraged  the  magnates  still  more  in  their  pre- 
sumption ;  discontented  Avith  the  Austrian  government, 
they  threw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  Turks ;  dis- 
satisfied with  tliese,  they  i-eturned  again  to  their  German 
sovereigns.  The  frequency  and  rapidity  of  these  transi- 
tions irom  one  government  to  another  had  communi- 
cated its  influences  also  to  their  mode  of  thinking;  and  as 
their  country  wavered  between  the  Turkish  and  Austrian 
rule,  so  their  minds  vacillated  between  revolt  and  sub- 
mission. The  more  unfortunate  each  nation  felt  itself  in 
being  degraded  into  a  province  of  a  foreign  kingdom,  the 
stronger  "desire  did  they  feel  to  obey  a  monarch  chosen 
from  "amongst  themselves,  and  thus  it  was  always  easy  for 
an  enterprising  noble  to  obtain  their  support.  The 
nearest  Turkish  pasha  was  always  ready  to  bestoAV  the 
Hungarian  sceptre  and  crown  on  a  rebel  against  Austria ; 
just  as  ready  Avas  Austria  to  confirm  to  any  adven- 
turer the  possession  of  jn-ovinces  Avhich  he  had  wrested 
from  the  Porte,  satisfied  Avith  preserving  thereby  the 
shadow   of   authority,   and   Avith   erecting   at   the   same 


28  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

time  a  barrier  against  the  Turks.  In  this  way  several  of 
these  inagnates,"Bathori,  Boschkai,  Ragoczi,  and  Bethlen, 
succeeded  in  estabhsliing  themselves,  one  after  another, 
as  tributary  sovereigns  in  Transylvania  and  Hungary  ; 
and  they  maintained  tlieir  ground  by  no  deeper  policy 
than  that  of  occasionally  joining  tlie  enemy,  in  order  to 
render  themselves  more  formidable    to  their  own  prince. 

Ferdinand,  Maximilian,  and  Eodolph,  who  were  all 
sovereigns  of  Hungary  and  Transylvania,  exhausted 
their  other  territories  in  endeavoring  to  defend  these 
from  the  hostile  inroads  of  the  Turks,  and  to  put  down 
intestine  rebellion.  In  this  quarter  destructive  wars 
were  succeeded  but  by  brief  truces,  which  were  scarcely 
less  hurtful :  far  and  wide  the  land  lay  waste,  while  the 
injured  serf  had  to  complain  equally  of  his  enemy  and 
his  protector.  Into  these  countries  also  the  Eeforrnation 
had  penetrated  ;  and  protected  by  the  freedom  of  the 
States,  and  under  the  cover  of  the  internal  disorders, 
had  made  a  noticeable  progress.  Here,  too,  it  was  in- 
cautiously attacked,  and  party  s])irit  thus  became  yet 
more  dangerous  from  religious  enthusiasm.  Headed  by 
a  bold  rebel,  Boschkai,  the  nobles  of  Hungary  and  Tran- 
sylvania raised  the  standard  of  rebellion.  The  Hungarian 
insurgents  were  upon  the  point  of  making  common  cause 
with  the  discontented  Protestants  in  Austria,  Moravia, 
and  Bohemia,  and  uniting  all  those  countries  in  one 
fearful  revolt.  The  downfall  of  popery  in  these  lands 
would  then  have  been  inevitable. 

Long  had  the  Austrian  archdukes,  the  brothers  of  the 
Emperor,  beheld  with  silent  indignation  the  impending 
ruin  of  their  house;  this  last  event  hastened  their  deci- 
sion. The  Archduke  Matthias,  Maximilian's  second  son, 
Viceroy  in  Hungary,  and  liodolj^h's  presumptive  heir, 
now  came  forward  as  the  stay  of  the  falling  liouse  of 
Hapsburg.  In  his  youth,  misled  by  a  false  ambition, 
this  prince,  disregarding  the  interests  of  his  family,  had 
listened  to  tlu;  overturt-s  of  the  Flemish  insurgents,  who 
invited  him  into  the  Netherlands  to  conduct  the  defence 
of  their  liberties  against  the  oppression  of  his  own 
relative,  Philip  TI.  Mistaking  the  voice  of  an  insulated 
faction  for  that  of  the  entire  nation,  Matthias  obeyed  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  29 

call.  But  the  event  answered  the  expectations  of  the 
men  of  Brabant  as  little  as  his  own,  and  from  this  impru- 
dent enterprise  he  retired  with  little  credit. 

Far  more  honorable  was  his  second  appearance  in  the 
political  world.  Perceiving  that  his  repeated  remon- 
strances with  the  Emperor  were  unavailing,  he  assembled 
the  archdukes,  his  brothers  and  cousins,  at  Presburg,  and 
consulted  with  them  on  the  growing  perils  of  their  house, 
when  they  unanimously  assigned  to  him,  as  the  oldest, 
the  duty  of  defending  that  patrimony  w^hich  a  feeble 
brother  was  endangering.  In  his  hands  they  placed  all 
their  powers  and  rights,  and  vested  him  with  sovereign 
authority  to  act  at  his  discretion  for  the  common  good. 
Matthias  immediately  opened  a  communication  with  the 
Porte  and  the  Hungarian  rebels,  and  through  his  skilful 
management  succeeded  in  saving  by  a  peace  with  the 
Turks  the  remainder  of  Hungaxy,  and,  by  a  treaty 
with  the  rebels,  preserved  the  claims  of  Austria  to  the 
lost  provinces.  But  Rodolph,  as  jealous  as  he  had 
hitherto  been  careless  of  his  sovereign  authority,  refused 
to  ratify  this  treaty,  which  he  regarded  as  a  criminal 
encroachment  on  his  sovereign  rights.  He  accused  the 
Archduke  of  keeping  up  a  secret  understanding  with  the 
enemy,  and  of  cherishing  treasonable  designs  on  the 
crown  of  Hungary. 

The  activity  of  Matthias  was,  in  truth,  anything  but 
disinterested ;  the  conduct  of  the  Emperor  only  acceler- 
ated the  execution  of  his  ambitious  views.  Secure,  from 
motives  of  gratitude,  of  the  devotion  of  the  Hungarians, 
for  whom  he  had  so  lately  obtained  the  blessings  of  peace ; 
assured  by  his  agents  of  the  favorable  disposition  of  the 
nobles,  and  certain  of  the  support  of  a  large  party  even 
in  Austria,  he  now  ventured  to  assume  a  bolder  attitude, 
and,  sword  in  hand,  to  discuss  his  grievances  with  the 
Emperor.  The  Protestants  in  Austria  and  Moravia,  long 
ripe  for  revolt,  and  now  won  over  to  the  Archduke  by  his 
promises  of  toleration,  loudly  and  openly  espoused  his 
cause,  and  their  long-menaced  alliance  with  the  Hungarian 
rebels  was  actually  effected.  Almost  at  once  a  formid- 
able conspiracy  was  planned  and  matured  against  the 
Emperor.     Too  late  did  he  resolve  to  amend  his  past 


30  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

errors ;  in  vain  did  he  attempt  to  break  up  this  fatal 
alliance.  Already  the  whole  empire  was  in  arms ; 
Hungary,  Austria,  and  Moravia  had  done  homage  to 
Matthias,  who  Avas  already  on  his  march  to  Bohemia  to 
seize  the  Emperor  in  his  palace,  and  to  cut  at  once  the 
sinews  of  his  j^ower. 

Bohemia  was  not  a  more  peaceable  possession  for 
Austria  than  Hungary  ;  with  this  difference  only,  that,  in 
the  latter,  j^olitical  considerations,  in  the  former,  religious 
dissensions,  fomented  disorders.  In  Bohemia,  a  century 
before  the  days  of  Luther,  the  first  spark  of  the  religious 
war  had  been  kindled  ;  a  century  after  Luther  the  fii'st 
flames  of  the  thirty  years,  war  burst  out  in  Bohemia. 
The  sect  which  owed  its  rise  to  John  Huss  still  existed 
in  that  country ;  —  it  agreed  with  the  Romish  Church  in 
ceremonies  and  doctrines,  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  administration  of  the  Communion,  in  which  the 
Hussites  communicated  in  both  kinds.  This  privilege 
had  been  conceded  to  the  followers  of  Huss  by  the 
Council  of  Basle  in  an  express  treaty  (the  Bohemian 
Compact)  ;  and  though  it  was  afterwards  disavowed  by 
the  popes,  they  nevertheless  continued  to  profit  by  it 
under  the  sanction  of  the  government.  As  the  use  of  the 
cup  formed  the  only  important  distinction  of  their  body, 
they  were  usually  designated  by  the  name  of  Utraquists ; 
and  they  readily  adopted  an  appellation  which  reminded 
them  of  their  dearly-valued  privilege.  But  under  this 
title  lurked  also  the  far  stricter  sects  of  the  Bohemian 
and  Moravian  Brethren,  who  differed  from  the  predomi- 
nant church  in  more  important  particulars,  and  bore,  in 
fact,  a  great  resemblance  to  the  German  Protestants. 
Among  them  both  the  German  and  Swiss  opinions  on 
religion  made  rapid  progress ;  while  the  name  of  Utra- 
quists, under  which  they  managed  to  disguise  the  change 
of  their  principles,  shielded  them  from  persecution. 

In  truth,  they  had  notliing  in  common  with  the  Utra- 
quists but  the  name ;  essentially  they  were  altogether 
Protestant.  Confident  in  the  strength  of  their  party,  and 
the  Emperor's  toleration  under  Maximilian,  they  had 
openly  avowed  their  tenets.  After  the  example  of  the 
Germans,   they   drew  up  a  Confession  of  their  own,  in 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  31 

which  Lutherans  as  well  as  Calvinists  recognized  their 
own  doctrines,  and  they  sought  to  transfer  to  the  new 
Confession  the  privileges  of  the  original  Utraquists.  In 
this  they  were  opposed  by  their  Roman  Catholic  country- 
men, and  forced  to  rest  content  with  the  Emperor's 
verbal  assurance  of  protection. 

As  long  as  Maximilian  lived  they  enjoyed  complete 
toleration,  even  under  the  new  form  they  had  taken. 
Under  his  successor  the  scene  changed.  An  imperial 
edict  appeared  which  deprived  the  Bohemian  Brethren 
of  their  religious  freedom.  Now  these  differed  in  nothing 
from  the  other  Utra-quists.  The  sentence,  therefore,  of 
their  condemnation  obviously  included  all  the  partisans 
of  the  Bohemian  Confession.  Accordingly,  they  all 
combined  to  oppose  the  imperial  mandate  in  the  Diet, 
but  witliout  being  able  to  procure  its  revocation.  The 
Emperor  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Estates  took  their 
ground  on  the  Compact  and  the  Bohemian  Constitution ; 
in  which  nothing  appeared  in  favor  of  a  religion  which 
had  not  then  obtained  the  voice  of  the  country.  Since 
that  time  how  completely  had  affairs  changed  ?  What 
then  formed  but  an  inconsiderable  opinion  had  now 
become  the  predominant  religion  of  the  country.  And 
what  was  it  then  but  a  subterfuge  to  limit  a  newly- 
spreading  religion  by  the  terms  of  obsolete  treaties? 
The  Bohemian  Protestants  appealed  to  the  verbal  guar- 
antee of  Maximilian,  and  the  religious  freedom  of  the 
Germans,  wdth  whom  they  argued  they  ought  to  be  on  a 
footing  of  equality.  It  was  in  vain  —  their  appeal  was 
dismissed. 

Such  was  the  posture  of  affairs  in  Bohemia  when 
Matthias,  already  master  of  Hungary,  Austria,  and 
Moi-avia,  appeared  in  Kolin,  to  raise  the  Bohemian 
Estates  also  against  the  Emperor.  The  embarrassment 
of  the  latter  was  now  at  its  height.  Abandoned  by  all 
his  other  subjects,  he  placed  "his  last  hopes  on  the 
Bohemians,  who,  it  might  be  foreseen,  would  take  advan- 
tage of  his  necessities  to  enforce  their  own  demands. 
After  an  interval  of  many  years,  he  once  more  appeared 
publicly  in  the  Diet  at  Prague ;  and  to  convince  the 
people  that  he  was  really  still  in  existence,  orders  were 


32  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

given  that  all  the  windows  should  be  opened  in  the 
sti'eets  through  which  he  was  to  pass  —  proof  enough 
how  far  things  had  gone  with  him.  The  event  justified 
his  fears.  The  Estates,  conscious  of  tlieir  own  power, 
refused  to  take  a  single  step  until  their  privileges  were 
confirmed,  and  religious  toleration  fully  assured  to  them. 
It  was  in  vain  to  have  recourse  now  to  the  old  system  of 
evasion.  The  Emperor's  fate  was  in  their  hands,  and  he 
must  yield  to  necessity.  At  present,  however,  he  only 
granted  their  other  demands  —  religious  matters  he 
reserved  for  consideration  at  the  next  Diet. 

The  Bohemians  now  took  up  arms  in  defence  of  the 
Emperor,  and  a  bloody  war  between  the  two  bi'others 
was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out.  But  Rodolph,  who 
feared  nothing  so  much  as  remaining  in  this  slavish 
dependence  on  the  Estates,  waited  not  for  a  warlike 
issue,  but  hastened  to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  his 
brother  by  more  peaceable  means.  By  a  formal  act  of 
abdication  he  resigned  to  Matthias,  what  indeed  he  had 
no  chance  of  wi'esting  from  him,  Austria  and  the  kingdom 
of  Hungary,  and  acknowledged  him  as  his  successor  to 
the  crown  of  Bohemia. 

Dearly  enough  had  the  Emperor  extricated  himself 
from  one  difficulty  only  to  get  immediately  involved  in 
another.  The  settlement  of  the  religious  affairs  of 
Bohemia  had  been  referred  to  the  next  Diet,  which  was 
held  in  1609.  The  reformed  Bohemians  demanded  the 
free  exercise  of  their  faith,  as  under  the  former  emperors ; 
a  Consistory  of  their  own ;  the  cession  of  the  University 
of  Prague ;  and  the  right  of  electing  Defenders^  or 
Protectors  of  Liberty,  from  their  own  body.  The  answer 
was  the  same  as  before ;  for  the  timid  Emperor  was  now 
entirely  fettered  by  the  unreformed  party.  However 
often,  and  in  however  threatening  language  the  Estates 
renewed  their  remonstrances,  the  Emperor  persisted  in 
his  first  declaration  of  granting  nothing  beyond  the  old 
compact.  The  Diet  broke  up  without  coming  to  a  de- 
cision ;  and  the  Estates,  exasperated  against  the  Emperor, 
arranged  a  general  meeting  at  Prague,  upon  their  own 
authority,  to  right  themselves. 

They  appeared  at  Prague  in  great  force.    In  defiance 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS*   WAR.  33 

of  the  imperial  prohibition  they  carried  on  their  delibera- 
tions almost  under  the  vei-y  eyes  of  the  Emperor.  The 
yielding  compliance  ^vhich  he  began  to  show  only  proved 
how  much  they  were  feared,  and  increased  tlieir  audacity. 
Yet  on  tlie  main  point  he  remained  inflexible.  They 
fulfllled  their  threats,  and  at  last  resolved  to  establish,  by 
their  own  power,  the  free  and  universal  exercise  of  their 
religion,  and  to  abandon  the  Emperor  to  his  necessities 
until  he  should  confirm  this  resolution.  They  even  went 
farther,  and  elected  for  themselves  the  Defendeks  which 
the  Emperor  had  refused  them.  "J'en  were  nominated  by 
each  of  the  three  Estates  ;  they  also  determined  to  raise, 
as  soon  as  possible,  an  armed  force,  at  the  head  of  which 
Count  Thurn,  the  chief  organizer  of  the  revolt,  should  be 
placed  as  general  defender  of  the  liberties  of  Bohemia. 
Their  determination  brought  the  Emperor  to  submission, 
to  which  he  was  now  counselled  even  by  the  Spaniards. 
Apprehensive  lest  the  exasperated  Estates  should  throw 
themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  King  of  Hungary,  he 
signed  the  memorable  Letter  of  Majesty  for  Bohemia,  by 
which,  under  the  successors  of  the  Emperor,  that  people 
justified  their  rebellion. 

The  Bohemian  Confession,  which  the  States  had  laid 
before  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  was,  by  the  Letter  of 
Majesty,  placed  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  the  olden 
profession.  The  Utraquists,  for  by  this  title  the  Bohe- 
mian Protestants  continued  to  designate  themselves,  were 
put  in  possession  of  tlie  University  of  Prague,  and  allowed 
a  Consistory  of  their  own  entirely  independent  of  the 
archiepiscopal  see  of  that  city.  All  the  churches  in  the 
cities,  villages,  and  market  towns,  which  they  lield  at  the 
date  of  the  letter,  were  secured  to  them;  and  if  in 
addition  they  wished  to  erect  others,  it  was  permitted  to 
the  nobles,  and  knights,  and  the  free  cities  to  do  so. 
This  last  clause  in  the  Letter  of  Majesty  gave  rise  to  the 
unfortunate  disputes  which  subsequently  rekindled  the 
flames  of  war  in  Europe. 

The  Letter  of  Majesty  erected  the  Protestant  part  of 
Bohemia  into  a  kind  of  republic.  The  Estates  had 
learned  to  feel  the  power  which  they  gained  by  perse- 
verance, unity,  and  harmony  in  their  measures.      The 


34  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Emperor  now  retained  little  more  than  the  shadow  of 
his  sovereign  authority ;  while  by  the  new  dignity  of  the 
so-called  defenders  of  liberty  a  dangerous  stimulus  was 
given  to  the  spirit  of  revolt.  The  example  and  success 
of  Bohemia  afforded  a  tempting  seduction  to  the  other 
hereditary  dominions  of  Austria,  and  all  attempted  by 
similar  means  to  extort  similar  privileges.  The  spirit  of 
liberty  spread  from  one  province  to  another ;  and  as  it 
was  chiefly  the  disunion  among  the  Austrian  princes  that 
had  enabled  the  Protestants  so  materially  to  improve 
their  advantages,  they  now  hastened  to  effect  a  reconcili- 
ation between  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  Hungary. 

But  the  reconciliation  could  not  be  sincere.  The 
wrong  was  too  great  to  be  forgiven,  and  Rodolph  con- 
tinued to  nourish  at  heart  an  unextinguishable  hatred  of 
Matthias.  With  grief  and  indignation  he  brooded  over  the 
thought  that  the  Bohemian  sceptre  was  finally  to  descend 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemy ;  and  the  j^rosj^ect  was  not 
more  consoling,  even  if  Matthias  should  die  without 
issue.  In  tliat  case,  Eerdinand,  Archduke  of  Gratz,  whom 
he  equally  disliked,  was  the  head  of  the  family.  To 
exclude  the  latter  as  well  as  Matthias  from  the  succession 
to  the  throne  of  Bohemia,  he  fell  upon  the  project  of 
diverting  that  inheritance  to  Eerdinand's  brother,  the 
Archduke  Leopold,  Bishop  of  Passau,  who  among  all  his 
relatives  had  ever  been  the  dearest  and  most  deserving. 
The  prejudices  of  the  Bohemians  in  favor  of  the  elective 
freedom  of  their  crown,  and  their  attachment  to  Leo- 
pold's person,  seemed  to  favor  this  scheme,  in  which 
Rodolph  consulted  rather  his  own  partiality  and  vindictive- 
ness  than  the  good  of  his  house.  But  to  carry  out  this 
project,  a  military  force  was  requisite,  and  Rodolph 
actually  assembled  an  army  in  the  bishopric  of  Passau. 
The  object  of  this  force  was  hidden  from  all.  An  inroad,- 
however,  which,  for  want  of  ]iay,  it  made  suddenly  and 
without  the  Emperor's  knowledge  into  Bohemia,  and  the 
outrages  which  it  there  committed,  stirred  up  the  whole 
kinijdom  asjainst  him.  Li  vain  he  asserted  his  innocence 
to  the  Bohemian  Estates ;  they  would  not  believe  his  pro- 
testations; vainly  did  he  attempt  to  restrain  the  violence 
of  his  soldiery ;  they  disregarded  his  orders.     Persuaded 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  35 

that  the  Emperor's  object  was  to  annul  the  Letter  of 
Majesty,  the  Protectors  of  Liberty  armed  the  whole  of 
Protestant  Bohemia,  and  invited  Matthias  into  the 
country.  After  the  dispersion  of  the  force  he  had 
collected  at  Passau,  the  Emperor  remained  helpless  at 
Prao-ue,  where  he  was  kept  shut  up  like  a  prisoner  in  his 
palace,  and  separated  from  all  his  counsellors.  In  the 
meantime  Matthias  entered  Prague  amidst  universal 
rejoicings,  where  Rodolph  was  soon  afterwards  weak 
enough  to  acknowledge  him  King  of  Bohemia.  So  hard 
a  fate  befell  this  Emperor ;  he  was  compelled,  during  his 
life,  to  abdicate  in  favor  of  his  enemy  that  very  throne 
of  which  he  had  been  endeavoring  to  deprive  him  after 
his  own  death.  To  complete  his  degradation  he  was 
obliged,  by  a  personal  act  of  renunciation,  to  release  his 
subjects  in  Bohemia,  Silesia,  and  Lusatia  from  their 
allegiance,  and  he  did  it  with  a  broken  heart.  All,  even 
those  he  thought  he  had  most  attached  to  his  person,  had 
abandoned  him.  When  he  had  signed  the  instrument  he 
threw  his  hat  upon  the  ground,  and  gnawed  the  pen 
which  had  rendered  so  shameful  a  service. 

While  Rodolph  thus  lost  one  hereditary  dominion  after 
another  the  imperial  dignity  was  not  much  better  main- 
tained by  him.  Each  of  the  religious  parties  into  which 
Germany  was  divided  continued  its  efforts  to  advance 
itself  at  the  expense  of  the  other,  or  to  guard  against  its 
attacks.  The  weaker  the  hand  that  held  the  sceptre,  and 
the  more  the  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics  felt  they 
were  left  to  themselves,  the  more  vigilant  necessarily 
became  their  watchfulness,  and  the  greater  their  distrust 
of  each  other.  It  was  enough  that  the  Emperor  was 
ruled  by  Jesuits,  and  was  guided  by  Spanish  counsels,  to 
excite  the  apprehension  of  the  Protestants  and  to  afford  a 
pi-etext  for  hostility.  The  rash  zeal  of  the  Jesuits,  which 
in  tlie  pulpit  and  by  the  press  disputed  the  validity  of  the 
religious  peace,  increased  this  distrust,  and  caused  their 
adversaries  to  see  a  dano-erous  design  in  the  most  indif- 
ferent  measures  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  Every  step 
taken  in  the  hereditary  dominions  of  the  Emperor  for 
the  repression  of  the  reformed  religion  was  sure  to  draw 
the   attention  of  all  the  Protestants  of  Germany ;  and 


36  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

this  powerful  support  which  the  reformed  subjects  of 
Austria  met,  or  expected  to  meet  with  from  their  reli- 
gious confederates  in  the  rest  of  Germany,  was  no  small 
cause  of  their  confidence  and  of  the  rapid  success  of 
Matthias.  It  was  the  general  belief  of  the  Empire  that 
they  owed  the  long  enjoyment  of  the  religious  peace 
merely  to  the  difficulties  in  which  the  Emperor  was 
placed  by  the  internal  troubles  in  his  dominions ;  and 
consequently  they  were  in  no  haste  to  relieve  him  from 
them. 

Almost  all  the  affairs  of  the  Diet  were  neglected,  either 
through  the  procrastination  of  the  Emperor,  or  through 
the  fault  of  the  Protestant  Estates,  who  had  determined 
to  make  no  provision  for  the  common  wants  of  the 
Empire  till  their  own  grievances  were  removed.  These 
grievances  related  principally  to  the  misgovernment  of 
the  Emperor;  the  violation  of  the  religious  treaty,  and 
the  presumptuous  usurpations  of  the  Aulic  Council, 
which  in  the  present  reign  had  begun  to  extend  its 
jurisdiction  at  the  expense  of  the  Imperial  Chamber. 
Formerly,  in  all  disputes  between  the  Estates,  which 
could  not  be  settled  by  club  law,  the  Emperors  had  in 
the  last  resort  decided  of  themselves,  if  the  case  were 
trifling,  and  in  conjunction  with  the  princes,  if  it  were 
important;  or  they  determined  them  by  the  advice  of 
imperial  judges  who  followed  the  court.  This  superior 
jurisdiction  they  had,  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
assigned  to  a  regular  and  permanent  tribunal,  the  Im- 
perial Chamber  of  Spires,  in  which  the  Estates  of  the 
Empire,  that  they  might  not  be  oppressed  by  the  arbi- 
trary appointment  of  the  Emperor,  had  reserved  to 
themselves  the  right  of  electing  the  assessors,  and  of 
periodically  reviewing  its  decrees.  By  the  religious 
peace,  these  rights  of  the  Estates  (called  the  rights  of 
presentation  and  visitation),  were  extended  also  to  the 
Lutherans,  so  that  Protestant  judges  had  a  voice  in  Prot- 
estant causes,  and  a  seeming  equality  obtained  for  both 
reli<?i()ns  in  this  supreme  tribunal. 

But  the  enemies  of  the  Reformation  and  of  the  freedom 
of  the  Estates,  vigilant  to  take  advantage  of  every 
incident  that  favored  their  views,  soon  found  means  to 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  37 

neutralize  the  beneficial  effects  of  this  institution.      A 
supreme  jurisdiction  over  the  Imperial  States  was  gradu- 
ally and  skilfully  usurped  by  a  private  imperial  tribunal, 
the  Aulic  Council  in   Vienna,  a  court  at  first  intended 
merely  to   advise   the  Emperor   in   the   exercise  of  his 
undoubted,  imperial,  and  personal  prerogatives ;  a  court 
whose  members,  being  appointed  and  paid  by  him,  had  no 
law  but  the  interest  of  their  master,   and  no  standard 
of  equity  but  the  advancement  of  the  unreformed  religion 
of  which  they  were  partisans.     Before  the  Aulic  Council 
were    now   brought   several    suits   originating    between 
Estates  differing  in  religion,  and  which,  therefore,  prop- 
erly  belonged   to   the   Imperial   Chamber.     It   was  not 
surprising  if  the  decrees  of  this  tribunal  bore  traces  of 
their  orgin ;  if  the  interests  of  the  Roman  Church  and  of 
the  Emperor  were  preferred  to  justice  by  Roman  Catholic 
judges,  and  the  creatures  of  the  Emperor.     Although  all 
the  Estates  of  Germany  seemed  to  have  equal  cause  for 
resisting  so  perilous  an  abuse,  the  Protestants  alone,  who 
most  sensibly  felt  it,  and  even  these  not  all  at  once  and  in 
a  body,  came  forward  as  the  defenders  of  German  liberty, 
which  the  establishment  of   so  arbitrary  a  tribunal  had 
outraged  in  its  most  sacred  point,  the  adminstration  of 
justice.     In  fact,  Germany  would  have  had  little  cause  to 
congratulate  itself  upon  the  abolition  of  club  law,  and  in 
the  institution  of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  if  an  arbitrary 
tribunal  of  the  Emperor  was  allowed  to  interfere  with  the 
latter.     The  Estates  of  the  German  Empire  would  indeed 
have  improved  little  upon  the  days  of  barbarism  if  the 
Chamber  of  Justice,  in   which  they  sat  along  with  the 
Emperor  as  judges,  and  for  which  they  had  abandoned 
their  original  princely  prerogative,  should  cease  to  be  a 
court  of  the  last  resort.     But  the  strangest  contradictions 
were  at  this  date  to  be  found  in  the  minds  of  men.     The 
name  of  Emperor,  a  remnant  of  Roman  despotism,  was 
still  associated  with  an  idea  of  autocracy,  which,  though 
it  formed  a  ridiculous  inconsistency  with  the  privileges  of 
the    Estates,    was    nevertheless   argued   for   by    jurists, 
diffused  by  the  partisans  of  despotism,  and  believed  by 
the  ignorant. 

To  these  general  grievances  was  gradually  added  a 


38  THE    THIRTY   YEARS     WAR. 

chain  of  singular  incidents,  which  at  length  converted 
the  anxiety  of  the  Protestants  into  utter  distrust.  During 
the  Spanish  persecutions  in  the  Netherlands  several 
Protestant  families  had  taken  refuge  in  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
an  imperial  city,  and  attached  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  where  they  settled  and  insensibly  extended  their 
adherents.  Having  succeeded  by  stratagem  in  introducing 
some  of  their  members  into  the  municipal  council,  they 
demanded  a  church  and  the  public  exercise  of  their 
worship,  and  the  demand  being  unfavorably  received, 
they  succeeded  by  violence  in  enforcing  it,  and  also  in 
usuri^ing  the  entire  government  of  the  city.  To  see  so 
important  a  city  in  Protestant  hands  was  too  heavy  a 
blow  for  the  Emperor  and  the  Roman  Catholics,  After 
all  the  Emperor's  requests  and  commands  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  olden  government  had  proved  ineffectual,  the 
Aulic  Council  proclaimed  the  city  under  the  ban  of  the 
Empire,  which,  however,  was  not  put  in  force  till  the 
following  reign. 

Of  yet  greater  importance  were  two  other  attempts  of 
the  Protestants  to  extend  their  influence  and  their  power. 
The  Elector  Gebhard,  of  Cologne  (born  Truchsess*  of 
Waldburg),  conceived  for  the  young  Countess  Agnes,  of 
Mansfield,  Canoness  of  Gerresheim,  a  passion  which  was 
not  unreturned.  As  the  eyes  of  all  Germany  were 
directed  to  this  intercourse,  the  brothers  of  the  Countess, 
two  zealous  Calvinists,  demanded  satisfaction  for  the 
injured  honor  of  their  house,  which,  as  long  as  the  Elector 
remained  a  Roman  Catholic  prelate,  could  not  be  repaired 
by  marriage.  Tliey  threatened  the  Elector  they  would 
wash  out  this  stain  in  his  blood  and  their  sister's  unless 
he  either  abandoned  all  further  connection  with  the 
Countess,  or  consented  to  re-establish  her  reputation  at 
tlie  altar.  The  Elector,  indifferent  to  all  the  consequences 
of  tliis  step,  listened  to  nothing  but  the  voice  of  love. 
Whether  it  was  in  consequence  of  his  previous  inclination 
to  the  reformed  doctrines,  or  that  the  charms  of  his 
mistress  alone  effected  this  wonder,  he  renounced  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith,  and  led  the  beautiful  Agnes  to 
the  altar. 

*  Grand-master  of  the  kitchen. 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  39 

This  event  was  of  the  greatest  importance.  By  the 
letter  of  the  clause  reserving  the  ecclesiastical  states  from 
the  general  ojjeration  of  the  religious  peace,  the  Elector 
had,  by  his  apostasy,  forfeited  all  right  to  the  tempora- 
lities of  his  bishopric ;  and  if,  in  any  case,  it  was  impor- 
tant for  the  Catholics  to  enforce  the  clause,  it  was  so 
especially  in  the  case  of  electorates.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  relinquishment  of  so  high  a  dignity  was  a  severe 
sacrifice,  and  peculiarly  so  in  the  case  of  a  tender  husband, 
who  had  wished  to  enhance  the  value  of  his  heart  and 
hand  by  the  gift  of  a  principality.  Moreover,  the  Reser- 
vatum  Ecclesiasticum  was  a  disputed  article  of  the  treaty 
of  Augsburg  ;  and  all  the  German  Protestants  were  aware 
of  the  extreme  importance  of  wresting  this  fourth* 
electorate  from  the  opponents  of  their  faith.  The  ex- 
ample had  already  been  set  in  several  of  the  ecclesiastical 
benefices  of  Lower  Germany,  and  attended  with  success. 
Several  canons  of  Cologne  had  also  already  embraced  the 
Protestant  confession,  and  were  on  the  Elector's  side, 
while  in  the  city  itself  he  could  depend  upon  the  support 
of  a  numerous  Protestant  party.  All  these  considera- 
tions, greatly  strengthened  by  the  persuasions  of  his 
friends  and  relations,  and  the  promises  of  several  German 
courts,  determined  the  Elector  to  retain  his  dominions, 
while  he  changed  his  religion. 

But  it  was  soon  apparent  that  he  had  entered  upon  a 
contest  which  he  could  not  carry  through.  Even  the 
free  toleration  of  the  Protestant  service  within  the  ter- 
ritories of  Cologne  had  already  occasioned  a  violent 
opposition  on  the  part  of  the  canons  and  Roman  Catholic 
Estates  of  that  province.  The  intervention  of  the  Em- 
peror, and  a  papal  ban  from  Rome,  which  anathematized 
the  Elector  as  an  apostate,  and  deprived  him  of  all  his 
dignities,  temporal  and  spiritual,  armed  his  own  subjects 
and  chapter  against  him.  The  Elector  assembled  a 
military  force  ;  the  chapter  did  the  same.  To  insure  also 
the  aid  of  a  strong  arm,  they  proceeded  fortwith  to  a 
new  election,  and  chose  the  Bisho])  of  Liege,  a  prince  of 
Bavaria. 

A  civil  war  now  commenced,  which,  from  the  strong 

*  Saxony,  Brandenburg,  and  the  Palatinate  were  already  Protestant. 


40  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

interest  which  both  religious  parties  in  Germany  neces- 
sarily felt  in  the  conjuncture,  was  likely  to  terminate  in 
a  general  breaking  up  of  the  religious  peace.  What 
most  made  the  Protestants  indignant  was  that  the  Pope 
should  have  presumed,  by  a  pretended  apostolic  power, 
to  deprive  a  prince  of  the  empire  of  his  imperial  dignities. 
Even  in  the  golden  days  of  their  sjm-itual  domination 
this  prerogative  of  the  Pope  had  been  disputed ;  how 
much  more  likely  was  it  to  be  questioned  at  a  period 
when  his  authority  was  entirely  disowned  by  one  party, 
while  even  with  the  other  it  rested  on  a  tottering  founda- 
tion. All  the  Protestant  princes  took  up  the  affair 
warmly  against  the  Emperor  ;  and  Henry  IV.  of  France, 
then  King  of  Navarre,  left  no  means  of  negotiation 
untried  to  urge  the  German  princes  to  the  vigorous 
assertion  of  their  rights.  The  issue  would  decide  for- 
ever the  liberties  of  Germany.  Four  Protestant  against 
three  Roman  Catholic  voices  in  the  Electoral  Collesje 
must  at  once  have  given  the  preponderance  to  the  former, 
and  forever  excluded  the  House  of  Austria  from  the 
imperial  throne. 

But  the  Elector  Gebhard  had  embraced  the  Calvinist, 
not  the  Lutheran  religion  ;  and  this  circumstance  alone 
was  his  ruin.  The  mutual  rancor  of  these  two  churches 
would  not  permit  the  Lutheran  Estates  to  regard  the 
Elector  as  one  of  their  party,  and  as  such  to  lend  him 
their  effectual  support.  All  indeed  had  encouraged  and 
promised  him  assistance  ;  but  only  one  appanaged  prince 
of  the  Palatine  House,  the  Palsgrave  John  Casimir,  a 
zealous  Calvinist,  kept  his  word.  Despite  of  the  imperial 
prohibition  he  hastened  with  his  little  army  into  the 
territories  of  Cologne ;  but  without  being  able  to  effect 
anything,  because  the  Elector,  who  was  destitute  even 
of  the  first  necessaries,  left  him  totally  without  help.  So 
much  the  more  rapid  was  the  progi-ess  of  the  newly-chosen 
elector,  whom  his  Bavarian  relations  and  the  Spaniards 
from  the  Netherlands  sujiported  with  the  utmost  vigor. 
The  troops  of  Gebhard,  left  by  their  master  without  pay, 
abandoned  one  place  after  another  to  the  enemy;  by 
whom  others  were  compelled  to  surrender.  In  his  West- 
phalian  territories  Gebliard  held  out  for  some  time  longer, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  41 

till  here,  too,  he  was  at  last  obliged  to  yield  to  superior 
force.  After  several  vain  attempts  in  Holland  and 
England  to  obtain  means  for  his  restoration,  he  retired 
into  the  Chapter  of  Strasburg,  and  died  dean  of  that 
cathedral ;  the  first  sacrifice  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Reser- 
vation, or  rather  to  the  want  of  harmony  among  the 
German  Protestants. 

To  this  dispute  in  Cologne  was  soon  added  another  in 
Strasburg.  Several  Protestant  canons  of  Cologne,  who 
had  been  included  in  the  same  papal  ban  with  the  Elector, 
had  taken  refuge  within  this  bishopric,  where  they  like- 
wise held  prebends.  As  the  Roman  Catholic  canons  of 
Strasburg  hesitated  to  allow  them,  as  being  under  the 
ban,  the  enjoyment  of  their  prebends,  they  took  violent 
possession  of  their  benefices,  and  the  support  of  a  power- 
ful Protestant  party  among  the  citizens  soon  gave  them 
the  preponderance  in  the  chapter.  The  other  canons  there- 
upon retired  to  Alsace-Saverne,  where,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  bishop,  they  established  themselves  as  the  only 
lawful  chapter,  and  denounced  that  which  remained  in 
Strasburg  as  illegal.  The  latter,  in  the  meantime,  had  so 
strengtiiened  themselves  by  the  recei^tion  of  several  Prot- 
estant colleagues  of  high  rank  that  they  could  venture, 
upon  the  death  of  the  bishop,  to  nominate  a  new  Protes- 
tant bishop  in  the  person  of  John  George  of  Brandenburg. 
The  Roman  Catholic  canons,  far  from  allowing  this 
election,  nominated  the  Bishop  of  Metz,  a  prince  of  Lor- 
raine, to  that  dignity,  who  announced  his  promotion  by 
immediately  commencing  hostilities  against  the  territories 
of  Strasburg. 

That  city  now  took  up  arms  in  defence  of  its  Protestant 
chapter  and  the  Prince  of  Brandendurg,  while  the  other 
party,  with  the  assistance  of  the  troops  of  Lorraine, 
endeavored  to  possess  themselves  of  the  temporalities  of 
the  chapter.  A  tedious  war  was  the  consequence,  which, 
according  to  the  spirit  of  the  times,  was  attended  with 
barbarous  devastations.  In  vain  did  the  Emperor  inter- 
pose with  his  supreme  authority  to  terminate  the  dispute ; 
the  ecclesiastical  property  remained  for  a  long  time 
divided  between  the  two  parties,  till  at  last  the  Protestant 
prince,  for  a  moderate   pecuniary  equivalent,  renounced 


42  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

his  claims ;  and  thus,  in  this  dispute  also,  the  Roman 
Church  came  off  victorious. 

An  occurrence  which,  soon  after  the  adjustment  of  this 
dispute,  took  place  in  Donauwerth,  a  free  city  of  Suabia, 
was  still  more  critical  for  the  whole  of  Protestant  Ger- 
many. In  this  once  Roman  Catholic  city  the  Protestants, 
durino-  the  reigns  of  Ferdinand  and  his  son,  had,  in  the 
usual *way,  become  so  completely  predominant  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  obliged  to  content  themselves  with 
a  church  in  the  monastery  of  the  Holy  Cross,  and,  for 
fear  of  offending  the  Protestants,  were  even  forced  to 
suppress  the  greater  part  of  their  religious  rites.  At 
length  a  fanatical  abbot  of  this  monastery  ventured  to 
defy  the  popular  prejudices,  and  to  arrange  a  public 
procession,  preceded  by  the  cross  and  banners  flying; 
but  he  was  soon  compelled  to  desist  from  the  attempt. 
When,  a  year  afterwards,  encouraged  by  a  favorable 
imperial  proclamation,  the  same  abbot  attempted  to  renew 
this  procession,  the  citizens  proceeded  to  open  violence. 
The  inhabitants  shut  the  gates  against  the  monks  on 
their  return,  trampled  their  colors  under  foot,  and  followed 
them  home  with  clamor  and  abuse.  An  imperial  citation 
was  the  consequence  of  this  act  of  violence ;  and  as  the 
exasperated  populace  even  threatened  to  assault  the 
imperial  commissaries,  and  all  attempts  at  an  amicable 
adjustment  were  frustrated  by  the  fanaticism  of  the 
multitude,  the  city  was  at  last  formally  placed  under  the 
ban  of  the  Empire,  the  execution  of  which  was  entrusted 
to  Maximilian,  Duke  of  Bavaria.  The  citizens,  formerly 
so  insolent,  were  seized  with  terror  at  the  approach  of 
the  Bavarian  army ;  pusillanimity  now  possessed  thern, 
though  once  so  full  of  defiance,  and  they  laid  down  their 
arms  without  striking  a  blow.  The  total  abolition  of  the 
Protestant  religion  within  the  walls  of  the  city  was  the 
punishment  of  their  rebellion ;  it  was  deprived  of_  its 
privileges,  and,  from  a  free  city  of  Suabia,  converted  into 
a  munfcipal  town  of  Bavaria. 

Two  circumstances  connected  with  this  proceeding 
must  have  strongly  excited  the  attention  of  the  Protes- 
tants, even  if  the  interests  of  religion  had  been  less 
powerful  on  their  minds.     First  of  all,  the  sentence  had 


THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'   WAR.  43 

been  pronounced  by  the  Aulic  Council,  an  arbitrary  and 
exclusively  Roman  Catholic  tribunal,  whose  jurisdiction 
besides  had  been  so  warmly  disputed  by  them ;  and 
secondly,  its  execution  had  been  entrusted  to  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  the  head  of  another  circle.  These  unconstitu- 
tional steps  seemed  to  be  the  harbingers  of  further  violent 
measures  on  the  Roman  Catholic  side,  the  result,  prob- 
ably, of  secret  conferences  and  dangerous  designs,  which 
might  perhaps  end  in  the  entire  subversion  of  their 
religious  liberty. 

In  circumstances  where  the  law  of  force  prevails,  and 
security  depends  ujwn  power  alone,  the  weakest  pai-ty  is 
naturally  the  most  busy  to  place  itself  in  a  posture  of 
defence.  This  was  now  the  case  in  Germany.  If  the 
Roman  Catholics  really  meditated  any  evil  against  the 
Protestants  in  Germany,  the  probability  was  that  the 
blow  would  fall  on  the  south  rather  than  the  north, 
because,  in  Lower  Germany,  the  Protestants  were  con- 
nected through  a  long  unbroken  tract  of  country,  and 
could  therefore  easily  combine  for  their  mutual  support; 
while  those  in  the  south,  detached  from  each  other,  and 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  Roman  Catholic  states,  were 
exposed  to  every  inroad.  If,  moreover,  as  was  to  be 
expected,  the  Catholics  availed  themselves  of  the  divis- 
ions amongst  the  Protestants,  and  levelled  their  attack 
against  one  of  the  religious  parties,  it  was  the  Calvinists, 
who  as  the  weaker,  and  as  being  besides  excluded  from 
the  religious  treaty,  were  apparently  in  the  greatest 
danger,  and  upon  them  would  probably  fall  the  first 
attack. 

Both  these  circumstances  took  place  in  the  dominions 
of  the  Elector  Palatine,  which  possessed,  in  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  a  formidable  neighbor,  and  which,  by  reason  of 
their  defection  to  Calvinism,  received  no  protection  from 
the  Religious  Peace,  and  had  little  hope  of  succor  from 
the  Lutheran  states.  No  country  in  Germany  had  expe- 
rienced so  many  revolutions  in  religion  in  such  a  short 
time  as  the  Palatinate.  In  the  space  of  sixty  years  this 
country,  an  unfortunate  toy  in  the  hands  of  its  rulers^  had 
twice  adopted  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  and  twice  relin- 
quished them  for  Calvinism.    The  Elector  Frederick  III. 


44  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

first  abandoned  the  confession  of  Augsburg,  which  his 
eldest  son  and  successor,  Lewis,  immediately  re-estab- 
lished. The  Calvinists  throughout  the  whole  country  were 
deprived  of  their  churches,  their  preachers  and  even  their 
teachers  banished  beyond  the  frontiers ;  while  the  prince, 
in  his  Lutheran  zeal,  persecuted  them  even  in  his  will, 
by  appointing  none  but  strict  and  orthodox  Lutherans  as 
the  guardians  of  his  son,  a  minor.  But  this  illegal  testa- 
ment was  disregarded  by  his  brother,  the  Count  Palatine, 
John  Casimir,  who,  by  the  regulations  of  the  Golden 
Bull,  assumed  the  guardianship  and  administration  of  the 
state.  Calvinistic  teachers  were  given  to  the  Elector 
Frederick  IV.,  then  only  nine  yeai-s  of  age,  who  were 
ordered,  if  necessary,  to  drive  the  Lutheran  heresy  out 
of  the  soul  of  their  pupil  with  blows.  If  such  was  the 
ti-eatment  of  the  sovereign,  that  of  the  subjects  may  be 
easily  conceived. 

It  was  under  this  Frederick  that  the  Palatine  Court 
exerted  itself  so  vigorously  to  unite  the  Protestant  states 
of  Germany  in  joint  measures  against  the  House  of 
Austria,  and,  if  possible,  bring  about  the  formation  of  a 
general  confederacy.  Besides  that  this  court  had  always 
been  oruided  bv  the  counsels  of  France,  with  whom  hatred 
of  the  House  of  Austria  was  the  ruling  princij^le,  a  regard 
for  his  own  safety  urged  him  to  secure  in  time  the  doubt- 
ful assistance  of  the  Lutherans  against  a  near  and  over- 
whelming enemy.  Great  difficulties,  however,  opposed 
this  union,  because  the  Lutherans'  dislike  of  the  Reformed 
was  scarcely  less  than  the  common  aversion  of  both  to 
the  Romanists.  An  attempt  was  first  made  to  reconcile 
the  two  professions,  in  order  to  facilitate  a  political  union ; 
but  all  these  attempts  failed  and  generally  ended  in  both 
parties  adhering  the  more  strongly  to  their  respective  opin- 
ions. Nothing  then  remained  but  to  increase  the  fear 
and  the  distrust  of  the  Evangelicals,  and  in  this  way  to 
impress  upon  them  the  necessity  of  this  alliance.  The 
power  of  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
danger  were  exaggerated,  accidental  incidents  were 
ascribed  to  deliberate  plans,  innocent  actions  misrepre- 
sented by  invidious  constructions,  and  the  whole  conduct 
of  the  professors  of  the  olden  religion  was  interpreted  as 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  45 

the  result  of  a  well-weighed  and  systematic  plan,  which, 
in  all  probability,  they  were  very  far  from  having  con- 
certed. 

The  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  to  which  the  Protestants  had 
looked  forward  with  the  hope  of  obtaining  a  renewal  of 
the  Religious  Peace,  had  broken  up  without  coming  to  a 
decision,  and  to  the  former  grievances  of  the  Protestant 
party  was  now  added  the  late  oppression  of  Donauwerth. 
With  incredible  speed  the  union,  so  long  attemi^ted,  was 
now  brought  to  bear.  A  conference  took  place  at 
Anhausen,  in  Franconia,  at  which  were  present  the 
Elector  Frederick  IV.,  from  the  Palatinate,  the  Palsgrave 
of  Neuburg,  two  Margraves  of  Brandenburg,  the  Mar- 
grave of  Baden,  and  the  Duke  John  Frederick  of  Wir- 
temburg,  —  Lutherans  as  well  as  Calvinists,  —  who  for 
themselves  and  their  heirs  entered  into  a  close  confed- 
eracy under  the  title  of  the  Evangelical  Union.  The 
purport  of  this  union  was,  that  the  allied  princes  should, 
in  all  matters  relating  to  religion  and  their  civil  rights, 
support  each  other  with  arms  and  counsel  against  every 
aggressor,  and  should  all  stand  as  one  man;  that  in  case 
any  member  of  the  alliance  sliould  be  attacked,  he  should 
be  assisted  by  the  rest  with  an  armed  force;  that,  if 
necessary,  the  territories,  towns,  and  castles  of  the  allied 
states  should  be  open  to  his  troops  ;  and  that  whatever 
conquests  were  made  should  be  divided  among  all  the 
confederates,  in  proportion  to  the  contingent  furnished 
by  each. 

The  direction  of  the  whole  confederacy  in  time  of  peace 
was  conferred  upon  the  Elector  Palatine,  but  with  a  limit- 
ed power.  To  meet  the  necessary  expenses,  sudsidies 
were  demanded,  and  a  common  fund  established.  Differ- 
ences of  religion  (  betwixt  the  Lutherans  and  the  Calvin- 
ists) Avere  to  have  no  effect  on  this  alliance,  which  Avas  to 
subsist  for  ten  years,  every  member  of  the  union  engaged 
at  the  same  time  to  procure  new  members  to  it.  The 
Electorate  of  Brandenburg  adopted  the  alliance,  that  of 
Saxony  rejected  it.  Hesse-Cashel  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon  to  declare  itself,  tlie  Dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Lune- 
burg  also  hesitated.  But  the  three  cities  of  the  Empire, 
Strasburg,  Nuremburg,  and  Ulm,  were  no  unimportant 


46  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

acquisition  for  the  Leagi;e,  which  was  in  great  want  of  their 
money,  while  their  example,  besides,  might  be  followed  by 
other  imperial  cities. 

After  the  formation  of  this  alliance,  the  confederate 
states,  dispirited  and,  singly,  little  feared,  adopted  a  bolder 
language.  Through  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt  they  laid 
their  common  grievances  and  demands  before  the  Em- 
peror ;  among  which  the  principal  were  the  restoration  of 
Donauwerth,  the  abolition  of  the  Imperial  Court,  the  refor- 
mation of  the  Emperor's  own  administration  and  that  of 
his  counsellors.  For  these  remonstrances,  they  chose  the 
moment  when  the  Emperor  had  scarcely  recovered  breath 
from  the  troubles  in  his  hereditary  dominions,  —  when  he 
had  lost  Hungary  and  Austria  to  Matthias,  and  had  barely 
preserved  his  Bohemian  throne  by  the  concession  of  the 
Letter  of  Majesty,  and  finally,  when  through  the  succes- 
sion of  Juliers  he  was  already  threatened  Avith  the  distant 
prospect  of  a  new  war.  No  wonder,  then,  that  this  dila- 
tory prince  was  more  irresolute  than  ever  in  his  decision, 
and  that  the  confederates  took  up  arms  before  he  could 
bethink  himself. 

The  Roman  Catholics  regarded  this  confederacy  with 
a  jealous  eye ;  the  Union  viewed  them  and  the  Emperor 
with  the  like  distrust ;  the  Emperor  was  equally  suspicious 
of  both ;  and  thus,  on  all  sides,  alarm  and  animosity  had 
reached  their  climax.  And,  as  if  to  ci'own  the  whole,  at 
this  critical  conjuncture,  by  the  death  of  the  Duke  John 
William  of  .Juliers,  a  highly  disputable  succession  became 
vacant  in  the  territories  of  Juliers  and  Cleves. 

Eight  competitors  laid  claim  to  this  territory,  the  indi- 
visibility of  which  had  been  guaranteed  by  solemn  treaties ; 
and  the  Emperor,  who  seemed  disposed  to  enter  upon  it  as 
a  vacant  fief,  might  be  considered  as  the  ninth.  Four  of 
these,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  the  Count  Palatine  of 
Keuburg,  the  Count  Palatine  of  Deux  Ponts,  and  the  Mar- 
grave of  Bergau,  an  Austrian  prince,  claimed  it  as  a  female 
fief  in  name  of  four  princesses,  sisters  of  the  late  duke. 
Two  others,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  of  the  line  of  Albert, 
and  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  of  the  line  of  Ernest,  laid  claim 
to  it  under  a  prior  right  of  reversion  granted  to  thein  by 
the  Emperor  Frederick  III.,  and  confirmed  to  both  Saxon 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  47 

houses  by  Maximilian  I.  The  pretensions  of  some  foreign 
princes  were  little  regarded.  The  best  right  was  perhaps 
on  the  side  of  Brandenburg  and  Neuberg,  and  between 
tlie  claims  of  the  two  it  was  not  easy  to  decide.  Both 
courts,  as  soon  as  the  succession  was  vacant,  proceeded  to 
take  possession ;  Brandenburg  beginning,  and  Neuberg 
following  the  example.  Both  commenced  their  dispute 
with  the  pen,  and  would  ])robably  have  ended  it  with  the 
sword :  but  the  interference  of  the  Emperor,  by  proceed- 
ing to  bring  the  cause  before  his  own  cognizance,  and, 
during  the  progress  of  the  suit,  sequestrating  the  disputed 
countries,  soon  brought  the  contending  parties  to  an  agree- 
ment, in  order  to  avert  the  common  danger.  They  agreed 
to  govern  the  duchy  conjointly.  In  vain  did  the  Emperor 
prohibit  the  Estates  from  doing  homage  to  their  new  mas- 
ters; in  vain  did  he  send  his  own  relation,  the  Archduke 
Leopold,  Bishop  of  Passau  and  Strasburg,  into  the  terri- 
tory of  Juliers,  in  order,  by  his  presence,  to  strengthen  the 
imperial  party.  The  whole  country,  with  the  exception  of 
Juliers  itself,  had  submitted  to  the  Protestant  princes,  and 
in  that  capital  the  im])erialists  were  besieged. 

The  dispute  about  the  succession  of  Juliers  was  an  im- 
portant one  to  the  whole  German  Empire,  and  also  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  several  European  courts.  It  was 
not  so  much  the  question,  who  was  or  was  not  to  possess 
the  Duchy  of  Juliers;  —  the  real  question  was,  which  of 
the  two  religious  parties  in  Germany,  the  Roman  Catholic 
or  the  Protestant,  was  to  be  strengthened  by  so  important 
an  accession  —  for  which  of  the  two  religions  this  terri- 
tory was  to  be  lost  or  won.  The  question  in  short  was, 
whether  Austria  was  to  be  allowed  to  persevere  in  lier 
usurpations,  and  to  gratify  her  lust  of  dominion  by  another 
robbery ;  or  whether  the  liberties  of  Germany,  and  the 
balance  of  power,  were  to  be  maintained  against  her  en- 
croachments. The  disputed  succession  of  Juliers,  there- 
fore, was  matter  which  interested  all  who  were  favorable 
to  liberty  and  hostile  to  Austria.  The  Evangelical  Union, 
Holland,  England,  and  particularly  Henry  IV.  of  France 
were  drawn  into  the  strife. 

This  monarch,  the  flower  of  whose  life  had  been  spent 
in  opposing  the  House  of  Austria  and  Spain,  and  by  per- 


48  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

severing  heroism  alone  had  surmounted  the  obstacles 
which  this  house  had  thrown  between  him  and  the  French 
throne,  had  been  no  idle  spectator  of  the  troubles  in  Ger- 
many. This  contest  of  the  Estates  with  the  Emperor  was 
the  means  of  giving  and  securing  peace  to  France.  The 
Protestants  and  the  Turks  were  the  two  salutary  weights 
which  kept  down  the  Austrian  power  in  the  East  and 
West :  but  it  would  rise  again  in  all  its  terrors,  if  once  it 
were  allowed  to  remove  this  pressure.  Henry  IV.  had 
before  his  eyes  for  half  a  lifetime  the  uninterrupted  spec- 
tacle of  Austrian  ambition  and  Austrian  lust  of  domin- 
ion, which  neither  adversity  nor  poverty  of  talents,  though 
generally  they  check  all  human  passions,  could  extinguish 
in  a  bosom  wherein  flowed  one  drop  of  the  blood  of 
Ferdinand  of  Arragon.  Austrian  ambition  had  destroyed 
for  a  century  the  peace  of  Europe,  and  effected  the 
most  violent  changes  in  the  heart  of  its  most  considerable 
states.  It  had  deprived  the  fields  of  husbandmen,  the 
workshops  of  artisans,  to  fill  the  land  with  enormous 
armies,  and  to  cover  the  commercial  sea  with  hostile  fleets. 
It  had  imposed  upon  the  princes  of  Europe  the  necessity 
of  fettering  the  industry  of  their  subjects  by  unheard-of 
imposts ;  and  of  wasting  in  self-defence  the  best  strength 
of  their  states,  which  Avas  thus  lost  to  the  prosperity  of 
their  inhabitants.  For  Europe  there  was  no  peace,  for  its 
states  no  welfare,  for  the  people's  happiness  no  security 
or  permanence,  so  long  as  this  dangerous  house  M^as  per- 
mitted to  disturb  at  pleasure  the  repose  of  the  world. 

Such  considerations  clouded  the  mind  of  Henry  at  the 
close  of  his  glorious  career.  What  had  it  not  cost  him  to 
reduce  to  oi-der  the  troubled  chaos  into  which  France  had 
been  plunged  by  the  tumult  of  civil  war,  fomented  and 
supported  by  this  very  Austria !  Every  great  mind  labors 
for  eternity;  and  what  security  had  Henry  for  the  endur- 
ance of  that  prosperity,  Avliich  he  had  gained  for  France, 
so  long  as  Austria  and  Sjiain  formed  a  single  power, 
which  did  indeed  lie  exhausted  for  the  present,  but  which 
required  only  one  lucky  chance  to  be  speedily  reunited, 
and  to  spring  up  again  as  formidable  as  ever.  If  he  would 
bequeatli  to  his  successors  a  firmly  eslablislied  throne,  and 
a  durable  prosperity  to  his  subjects,  this  dangerous  power 


THE   THIETY   YEARS     WAE.  49 

niust  be  forever  disarmed.  This  was  the  source  of  that 
irreconcilable  enmity  which  Henry  had  sworn  to  the 
House  of  Austria,  a  hatred  unextinguishable,  ardent,  and 
well-founded  as  that  of  Hannibal  against  the  i:)eople  of 
Romulus,  but  ennobled  by  a  purer  origin. 

The  other  European  powers  had  the  same  inducements 
to  action  as  Henry,  but  all  of  them  had  not  that  enlight- 
ened policy,  nor  that  disinterested  courage  to  act  upon 
the  impulse.  All  men,  without  distinction,  are  allured  by 
immediate  advantages  ;  great  minds  alone  are  excited  by 
distant  good.  So  long  as  wisdom  in  its  projects  calculates 
upon  wisdom,  or  relies  upon  its  own  strength,  it  forms 
none  but  chimerical  schemes,  and  runs  a  risk  of  making 
itself  the  laughter  of  the  world ;  but  it  is  certain  of  suc- 
cess, and  may  reckon  upon  aid  and  admiration  when  it 
finds  a  place  in  its  intellectual  plans  for  barbarism,  rapac- 
ity, and  superstition,  and  can  render  the  selfish  passions 
of  mankind  the  executors  of  its  purposes. 

In  the  first  point  of  view,  Henry's  well-known  project 
of  expelling  the  House  of  Austria  from  all  its  possessions, 
and  dividing  the  sjjoil  among  the  European  powers,  de- 
serves the  title  of  a  chimera,  which  men  have  so  liberally 
bestowed  upon  it ;  but  did  it  merit  that  appellation  in  the 
second  ?  It  had  never  entered  into  the  head  of  that  excel- 
lent monarch,  in  the  choice  of  those  who  must  be  the 
instruments  of  his  designs,  to  reckon  on  the  sufficiency  of 
such  motives  as  animated  himself  and  Sully  to  the  enter- 
l^rise.  All  the  states  whose  co-operation  was  necessary 
were  to  be  persuaded  to  the  work  by  the  strongest  motives 
that  can  set  a  political  power  in  action.  From  the  Prot- 
estants in  Germany  nothing  more  was  required  than  that 
which,  on  other  grounds,  had  been  long  their  object, 
—  their  throwing  off  the  Austrian  yoke;  from  the  Flem- 
ings, a  similar  revolt  from  the  Spaniards.  To  the  Pope 
and  all  the  Italian  republics  no  inducement  could  be  more 
powerful  than  the  hope  of  driving  the  Spaniards  forever 
from  their  peninsula ;  for  England,  nothing  more  desirable 
than  a  revolution  which  should  free  it  from  its  bitterest 
enemy.  By  this  division  of  the  Austrian  conquests  every 
power  gained  either  land  or  freedom,  new  possessions  or 
security  for  the  old ;  and,  as  all  gained,  the  balance  of 


50  THE   THIRTY   YEARS     WAR. 

power  remained  undisturbed.  France  might  magnani- 
mously decline  a  share  in  the  spoil,  because  by  the  ruin 
of  Austria  it  doubly  profited,  and  was  most  powerful  if 
it  did  not  become  more  powerful.  Finally,  upon  condi- 
tion of  ridding  Europe  of  their  presence,  the  posterity  of 
Hapsburg  were  to  be  allowed  the  liberty  of  augmenting 
her  territories  in  all  the  other  known  or  yet  undiscovered 
portions  of  the  globe.  But  the  dagger  of  Ravaillac  deliv- 
ered Austria  from  her  danger,  to  postpone  for  some  cen- 
turies longer  the  tranquillity  of  Europe. 

With  his  view  directed  to  this  project,  Henry  felt  the 
necessity  of  taking  a  prompt  and  active  part  in  the  impor- 
tant events  of  the  Evangelical  Union,  and  the  disputed 
succession  of  Juliers,  His  emissai-ies  were  busy  in  all  the 
courts  of  Germany,  and  the  little  which  they  published  or 
allowed  to  escape  of  the  great  political  secrets  of  their 
master  was  sufficient  to  win  over  minds  inflamed  by  so 
ardent  a  hatred  to  Austria,  and  by  so  strong  a  desire  of 
aggrandizement.  The  prudent  policy  of  Henry  cemented 
the  Union  still  more  closely,  and  the  powerful  aid  which 
he  bound  himself  to  furnish  raised  the  courage  of  the 
confederates  into  the  firmest  confidence.  A  numerous 
French  army,  led  by  the  king  in  person,  was  to  meet  the 
troops  of  the  Union  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  to 
assist  in  effecting  the  conquest  of  Juliers  and  Cleves; 
then,  in  conjunction  with  the  Germans,  it  was  to  march 
into  Italy  (where  Savoy,  Venice,  and  the  Pope  were  even 
now  ready  with  a  powerful  reinforcement),  and  to  over- 
throw the  Si^anish  dominion  in  that  quarter.  This  victo- 
rious army  was  then  to  penetrate  by  Lombardy  into  the 
hereditary  dominions  of  Hapsburg;  and  there,  favored 
by  a  general  insurrection  of  the  Protestants,  destroy  the 
power  of  Austria  in  all  its  German  territories,  in  Bohemia, 
Hungary,  and  Transylvania.  The  Brabanters  and  Hol- 
landers, supported  by  French  auxiliaries,  would  in  the 
meantime  shake  off  the  Spanish  tyranny  in  the  Nether- 
lands, and  thus  the  mighty  stream  which,  only  a  short  time 
before,  had  so  fearfully  overflowed  its  banks,  threatening  to 
overwhelm  in  its  troubled  waters  the  liberties  of  Europe, 
would  then  roll  silent  and  forgotten  behind  the  Pyrenean 
mountains. 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAE.  51 

At  other  times  the  French  had  boasted  of  their  rapidity 
of  action,  but  upon  this  occasion  they  were  outstripped 
by  the  Germans.  An  army  of  the  confederates  entered 
Alsace  before  Henry  made  his  ap])earance  there,  and  an 
Austrian  army,  which  the  Bishop  of  Strasburg  and  Passau 
had  assembled  in  that  quarter  for  an  expedition  against 
Juliers,  was  dispersed.  Henry  IV.  had  formed  his  plan 
as  a  statesman  and  a  king,  but  he  had  intrusted  its  execu- 
tion to  plunderers.  According  to  his  design,  no  Roman 
Catholic  state  was  to  have  cause  to  think  this  preparation 
aimed  against  itself,  or  to  make  the  quarrel  of  Austria  its 
own.  Religion  was  in  nowise  to  be  mixed  up  with  the 
matter.  But  how  could  the  German  princes  forget  their 
own  purposes  in  furthering  the  plans  of  Henry  ?  Actuated 
as  they  were  by  the  desire  of  aggrandizement  and  by 
religious  hatred,  was  it  to  be  supposed  that  they  would 
not  gratify,  in  eveiy  passing  ojjportunity,  their  ruling  pas- 
sions to  the  utmost  ?  Like  vultures,  they  stooped  upon 
the  territories  of  the  ecclesiastical  jDrinces,  and  always 
chose  those  rich  countries  for  their  quarters,  though  to 
reach  them  they  must  make  ever  so  wide  a  detour  from 
their  direct  route.  They  levied  contributions  as  in  an 
enemy's  country,  seized  upon  the  revenues,  and  exacted 
by  violence  what  they  could  not  obtain  of  free-will.  Not 
to  leave  the  Roman  Catholics  in  doubt  as  to  the  true 
objects  of  their  exjjedition,  they  announced,  openly  and 
intelligibly  enough,  the  fate  that  awaited  the  property  of 
the  church.  So  little  had  Henry  IV.  and  the  German 
princes  understood  each  other  in  their  plan  of  operations, 
so  much  had  the  excellent  king  been  mistaken  in  his  instru- 
ments .  It  is  an  unfailing  maxim,  that,  if  policy  enjoms 
an  act  of  violence,  its  execution  ought  never  to  be  entrust- 
ed to  the  violent ;  and  that  he  only  ought  to  be  trusted 
with  the  violation  of  order  by  whom  order  is  held  sacred. 

Both  the  past  conduct  of  the  Union,  which  was  con- 
demned even  by  several  of  the  evangelical  states,  and  the 
apprehension  of  even  worse  treatment,  aroused  the  Roman 
Catholics  to  something  beyond  mere  inactive  indignation. 
As  to  the  Emperor,  his  authority  had  sunk  too  low  to 
afford  them  any  security  against  such  an  enemy.  It  was 
their  Union  that  rendered  the  confederates  so  formidable 


52  THE   THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR. 

and  so  insolent ;  and  another  union  must  now  be  opposed 
to  them. 

The  Bishop  of  Wurtzburg  formed  the  plan  of  the  Cath- 
olic Union,  which  was  distinguished  from  the  evangelical 
by  the  title  of  the  League.  The  objects  agreed  upon 
were  nearly  the  same  as  those  which  constituted  the 
groundwork  of  the  Union.  Bishops  foi'med  its  principal 
members,  and  at  its  head  was  placed  Maximilian,  Duke  of 
Bavaria.  As  the  only  influential  secular  member  of  the 
confederacy,  he  was  entrusted  with  far  more  extensive 
powers  than  the  Protestants  had  committed  to  their  chief. 
In  addition  to  the  Duke's  being  the  sole  head  of  the 
League's  military  power,  whereby  their  operations  ac- 
quired a  speed  and  weight  unattainable  by  the  Union, 
they  had  also  the  advantage  that  supplies  flowed  in  much 
more  regularly  from  the  rich  prelates,  than  the  latter 
could  obtain  them  from  the  poor  evangelical  states. 
Without  offering  to  the  Emperor,  as  the  sovereign  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  state,  any  share  in  their  confederacy, 
without  ever  communicating  its  existence  to  him  as 
Emperor,  the  League  arose  at  once  formidable  and 
threatening ;  with  strength  sufiicient  to  crush  the  Protest- 
ant Union  and  to  maintain  itself  under  three  emperors. 
It  contended,  indeed,  for  Austria,  in  so  far  as  it  fought 
against  the  Protestant  princes ;  but  Austria  herself  had 
soon  cause  to  tremble  before  it. 

The  arms  of  the  Union  had,  in  the  meantime,  been 
tolerably  successful  in  Juliers  and  in  Alsace  ;  Juliers  was 
closely  blockaded,  and  the  whole  bishoi^ric  of  Sti-asburg 
was  in  their  power.  But  here  their  splendid  achieve- 
ments came  to  an  end.  No  French  army  appeared 
upon  the  Rhine ;  for  he  who  was  to  be  its  leader,  he  Avho 
was  the  animating  soul  of  the  whole  enterprise,  Henry 
IV.,  was  no  more !  Their  supplies  were  on  the  wane ;  the 
Estates  refused  to  grant  ncAv  subsidies ;  and  the  confeder- 
ate free  cities  were  offended  that  their  money  should 
be  liberally,  but  their  advice  so  sparingly  called  for. 
Especially  were  they  displeased  at  being  put  to  expense 
for  the  expedition  against  Juliers,  which  had  been 
expressly  excluded  from  the  affairs  of  the  Union  —  at  the 
united  princes  appropriating  to  themselves  large  pensions 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  53 

out  of  the  common  treasure  —  and,  above  all,  at  their 
refusing  to  give  any  account  of  its  exiDenditure, 

The  Union  was  thus  verging  to  its  fall  at  the  moment 
when  the  League  started  to  oppose  it  in  the  vigor  of  its 
strength.  Want  of  supplies  disabled  the  confederates 
from^ny  longer  keeping  the  field.  And  yet  it  was 
dangerous  to  lay  down  their  weapons  in  the  sight  of  an 
armed  enemy.  To  secure  themselves  at  least  on  one  side 
they  hastened  to  conclude  a  peace  with  their  old  enemy, 
the  Archduke  Leopold  ;  and  both  parties  agreed  to  with- 
draw their  troops  from  Alsace,  to  exchange  prisoners, 
and  to  bury  all  that  had  been  done  in  oblivion.  Tims 
ended  in  nothing  all  these  promising  preparations. 

The  same  imperious  tone  with  which  the  Union,  in  the 
confidence  of  its  strength,  had  menaced  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics of  Germany,  was  now  retorted  by  the  League  upon 
themselves  and  their  troops.  The  traces  of  their  march 
were  pointed  out  to  them,  and  plainly  branded  with  the 
hard  epithets  they  had  deserved.  The  chapters  of 
Wurtzburg,  Bamberg,  Strasburg,  Mentz,  Treves,  Cologne, 
and  several  others,  had  experienced  their  destructive 
presence ;  to  all  these  the  damage  done  was  to  be  made 
good,  the  free  passage  by  land  and  by  water  restored 
(for  the  Protestants  had  even  seized  on  the  navigation  of 
the  Rhine),  and  everything  replaced  on  its  former  footing. 
Above  all,  the  parties  to  the  Union  were  called  on  to 
declare  expressly  and  unequivocally  its  intentions.  It 
was  now  their  turn  to  yield  to  superior  strength.  They 
had  not  calculated  on  so  formidable  an  opponent;  but 
they  themselves  had  taught  the  Roman  Catholics  the 
secret  of  their  strength.  It  was  humiliating  to  their  pride 
to  sue  for  peace,  but  they  might  think  themselves  for- 
tunate in  obtaining  it.  The  one  party  promised  restitu- 
tion, the  other  forgiveness.  All  laid  down  their  arms. 
The  storm  of  war  once  more  rolled  by,  and  a  temporary 
calm  succeeded.  The  insurrection  in  Bohemia  then  broke 
out,  which  deprived  the  Emperor  of  the  last  of  his  hered- 
itary dominions,  but  in  this  dispute  neither  the  Union  nor 
the  League  took  any  share. 

At  length  the  Emperor  died,  in  1612,  as  little  regretted 
in  his  coffin  as  noticed  on  the  throne.     Long  afterwards, 


54  THE   THIRTY   years'   WAR. 

when  the  miseries  of  succeeding  reigns  had  made  the 
misfortunes  of  his  reign  forgotten,  a  halo  spread  about 
his  memory,  and  so  fearful  a  night  set  in  upon  Germany 
that,  with  tears  of  blood,  peoj^le  prayed  for  the  return  of 
such  an  emperor. 

Rodolph  never  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  choose  a 
successor  in  the  Empire,  and  all  awaited  with  anxiety  the 
approaching  vacancy  of  the  throne;  but,  beyond  all 
hope,  Matthias  at  once  ascended  it,  and  without  oppo- 
sition. The  Roman  Catholics  gave  him  their  voices, 
because  they  hoped  the  best  from  his  vigor  and  activity ; 
the  Protestants  gave  him  theirs,  because  they  hoped 
everything  from  his  weakness.  It  was  not  difficult  to 
reconcile  this  contradiction.  The  one  relied  on  what  he 
had  once  appeared ;  the  other  judged  him  by  what  he 
seemed  at  present. 

The  moment  of  a  new  accession  is  always  a  day  of 
hope ;  and  the  first  Diet  of  a  king  in  elective  monarchies 
is  usually  his  severest  trial.  Every  old  grievance  is 
brought  forward,  and  new  ones  are  sought  out,  that  they 
may  be  included  in  the  expected  reform ;  quite  a  new 
world  is  expected  to  commence  with  the  new  reign.  The 
important  services  which,  in  his  insurrection,  their  relig- 
ious confederates  in  Austria  had  rendered  to  Matthias, 
were  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  Protestant  free  cities, 
and,  above  all,  the  price  which  they  had  exacted  for  their 
services  seemed  now  to  serve  them  also  as  a  model. 

It  was  by  the  favor  of  the  Protestant  Estates  in 
Austria  and  Moravia  that  Matthias  had  sought  and  really 
found  the  way  to  his  brother's  throne ;  but,  hurried  oh 
by  his  ambitious  views,  he  never  reflected  that  a  way  was 
thus  opened  for  the  States  to  give  laws  to  their  sovereign. 
Tliis  discovery  soon  awoke  him  from  the  intoxication  of 
success.  Scarcely  had  he  shown  himself  in  triumph  to 
his  Austrian  subjects,  after  his  victorious  expedition  to 
Bohemia,  when  an  humble  petition  awaited  him  which  was 
quite  sufficient  to  poison  his  whole  triumjih.  They 
required,  before  doing  homage,  unlimited  religious  toler- 
ation in  the  cities  and  market  towns,  perfect  equality  of 
rights  between  Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants,  and  a 
full  and  equal  admissibility  of  the  latter  to  all  offices  of 


THE   THIRTY   YEAKS'   WAR.  55 

state.  In  several  places  tbey  of  themselves  assumed 
these  privileges,  and,  reckoning  on  a  change  of  adminis- 
tration, restored  tlie  Protestant  religion  where  the  late 
Emperor  had  suppressed  it.  Matthias,  it  is  true,  had  not 
scrupled  to  make  use  of  the  grievances  of  the  Protestants 
for  his  own  ends  against  the  Emperor ;  but  it  was  far 
from  being  his  intention  to  relieve  them.  By  a  fii-m  and 
resolute  tone  he  hoped  to  check  at  once  these  presump- 
tuous demands.  He  spoke  of  his  hereditary  title  to  these 
territories,  and  would  hear  of  no  stipulations  before  the 
act  of  homage.  A  like  unconditional  submission  had 
been  rendered  by  their  neighbors,  the  inhabitants  of 
Styria,  to  the  Archduke  Ferdinand,  who,  however,  had 
soon  reason  to  repent  of  it.  Warned  by  this  example, 
the  Austrian  States  persisted  in  their  refusal;  and,  to 
avoid  being  compelled  by  force  to  do  homage,  their 
deputies  (after  urging  their  Roman  Catholic  colleagues 
to  a  similar  resistance)  immediately  left  the  capital,  and 
began  to  levy  troops. 

They  took  steps  to  renew  their  old  alliance  with 
Hungary,  drew  the  Protestant  princes  into  their  interests, 
and  set  themselves  seriously  to  work  to  accomplish  their 
object  by  force  of  arms. 

With  the  more  exorbitant  demands  of  the  Hungarians 
Matthias  had  not  hesitated  to  comply.  For  Hungary 
was  an  elective  monarchy,  and  the  republican  constitution 
of  the  country  justified  to  himself  their  demands,  and  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  world  his  concessions.  In  Austria, 
on  the  contrary,  his  predecessors  had  exercised  far 
higher  prerogatives,  which  he  could  not  relinquish  at  the 
demand  of  the  Estates  without  incurring  the  scorn  of 
Roman  Catholic  Europe,  the  enmity  of  Spain  and  Rome, 
and  the  contempt  of  his  own  Roman  Catholic  subjects. 
His  exclusively  Romish  council,  among  which  the  Bishop 
of  Vienna,  Melchio  Kiesel,  had  the  chief  influence, 
exhorted  him  to  see  all  the  churches  extorted  from  him 
by  the  Protestants  rather  than  to  concede  one  to  them 
as  a  matter  of  right. 

But  by  ill  luck  this  difficulty  occurred  at  a  time  when 
the  Emperor  Rodolph  was  yet  alive  and  a  spectator  of 
this  scene,  and  who  might  easily  have  been  tempted  to 


56  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

employ  against  his  brother  the  same  weapons  which  the 
latter  had  successfully  directed  against  him  —  namely,  an 
understanding  with  his  rebellious  subjects.  To  avoid 
this  blow,  Mattliias  willingly  availed  himself  of  the  offer 
made  by  Moravia,  to  act  as  mediator  between  him  and 
the  Estates  of  Austria.  Representatives  of  both  parties 
met  in  Vienna,  when  the  Austrian  deputies  held  language 
which  would  have  excited  surprise  even  in  the  English 
Parliament.  "  The  Protestants,"  they  said,  "  are  deter- 
mined to  be  not  worse  treated  in  their  native  country 
than  the  handful  of  Romanists.  By  the  help  of  his 
Protestant  nobles  had  Matthias  reduced  the  Emperor  to 
submission;  where  eighty  Papists  were  to  be  found  three 
hundred  Protestant  barons  might  be  counted.  The  ex- 
ample of  Rodolph  should  be  a  warning  to  Matthias.  He 
should  take  care  that  he  did  not  lose  the  terrestrial  in  at- 
tempting to  make  conquests  for  the  celestial."  As  the 
Moravian  States,  instead  of  using  their  powers  as  mediators 
for  the  Emperor's  advantage,  finally  adopted  the  cause  of 
their  co-religionists  of  Austria ;  as  the  Union  in  Germany 
came  forward  to  afford  them  its  most  active  supjjort,  and 
as  Matthias  dreaded  reprisals  on  the  j^art  of  the  Emperor, 
he  was  at  length  compelled  to  make  the  desired  declara- 
tion in  favor  of  the  Evangelical  Church. 

This  behavior  of  the  Austrian  Estates  towards  their 
Archduke  was  now  imitated  by  the  Pi'otestant  Estates 
of  the  Empire  towards  their  Emperor,  and  they  promised 
themselves  the  same  favorable  results.  At  his  first  Diet 
at  Ratisbon,  in  1613,  when  the  most  pressing  affairs  were 
waiting  for  decision  — when  a  general  contribution  was  in- 
dispensable for  a  war  against  Turkey,  and  against  Bethlem 
Gabor  in  Transylvania,  who  by  Turkish  aid  had  forcibly 
usurped  the  sovereignty  of  that  land,  and  even  threatened 
Hungary — they  sur])rised  him  with  an  entirely  new  de- 
mand. The  Roman  Catholic  votes  were  still  the  most  numer- 
ous in  the  Diet ;  and  as  everything  was  decided  by  a  plural- 
ity of  voices,  the  Protestant  party,  however  closely  united, 
were  entirely  Avithout  consideration.  The  advantage  of 
this  majority  the  Roman  Catholics  were  now  called  on  to 
relinquish ;  henceforward  no  one  religious  party  was  to 
be  permitted  to  dictate  to  the  other  by  means  of  its 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  57 

invariable  superiority.  And,  in  truth,  if  the  evangelical 
religion  was  really  to  be  represented  in  the  Diet,  it  was 
self-evident  that  it  must  not  be  shut  out  from  the  possi- 
bility of  making  use  of  that  privilege,  merely  from  the 
constitution  of  the  Diet  itself.  Complaints  of  the  judi- 
cial usurpations  of  the  Aulic  Council,  and  of  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  Protestants,  accompanied  this  demand,  and 
the  deputies  of  the  Estates  were  instructed  to  take  no 
part  in  any  general  deliberations  till  a  favorable  answer 
should  be  given  on  this  preliminary  point. 

The  Diet  was  torn  asunder  by  this  dangerous  division, 
which  threatened  to  destroy  forever  the  unity  of  its  de- 
liberations. Sincerely  as  the  Emperor  might  have  wished, 
after  the  example  of  his  father,  Maximilian,  to  preserve  a 
prudent  balance  between  the  two  religions,  the  present 
conduct  of  the  Protestants  seemed  to  leave  him  nothing 
but  a  critical  choice  between  the  two.  In  his  present 
necessities  a  general  contribution  from  the  Estates  was 
indispensable  to  him  ;  and  yet  he  could  not  conciliate  the 
one  party  without  sacrificing  the  support  of  the  other. 
Insecure  as  he  felt  his  situation  to  be  in  his  own  heredi- 
tary dominions,  he  could  not  but  tremble  at  the  idea, 
however  remote,  of  an  open  war  with  the  Protestants. 
But  the  eyes  of  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  world,  which 
were  attentively  regarding  his  conduct,  the  remonstrances 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Estates,  and  of  the  Courts  of  Rome 
and  Spain,  as  little  permitted  him  to  favor  the  Protestant 
at  the  expense  of  the  Romish  religion. 

So  critical  a  situation  would  have  paralyzed  a  greater 
mind  than  Matthias ;  and  his  own  prudence  would  scarcely 
have  extricated  him  from  his  dilemma.  But  the  interests 
of  the  Roman  Catholics  were  closely  interwoven  with  the 
imperial  authority ;  if  they  suffered  this  to  fall  the 
ecclesiastical  princes  in  particular  would  be  without  a 
bulwark  against  the  attacks  of  the  Protestants.  Now, 
then,  that  they  saw  the  Emperor  wavering,  they  thought 
it  high  time  to  reassure  his  sinking  courage.  Tliey 
imparted  to  him  the  secret  of  their  League,  and  ac- 
quainted him  with  its  whole  constitution,  resources,  and 
power.  Little  comforting  as  sucli  a  revelation  must  have 
been   to   the   Emperor,  the   prospect   of   so   powerful  a 


58  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

support  gave  him  greater  boldness  to  oppose  the  Prot- 
estants. Their  demands  were  rejected,  and  the  Diet 
broke  up  without  coming  to  a  decision.  But  Matthias 
was  the  victim  of  this  dispute.  The  Protestants  refused 
him  their  supplies,  and  made  him  alone  suffer  for  the 
inflexibility  of  the  Roman  Catholics. 

The  Turks,  however,  appeared  willing  to  prolong  the 
cessation  of  hostilities,  and  Bethlem  Gabor  was  left  in 
peaceable  possession  of  Transylvania.  The  empire  was 
now  free  from  foreign  enemies ;  and  even  at  home,  in  the 
midst  of  all  these  fearful  disputes,  peace  still  reigned. 
An  unexpected  accident  had  given  a  singular  turn  to  the 
dispute  as  to  the  succession  of  Juliers.  This  duchy  was 
still  ruled  conjointly  by  the  Electoral  House  of  Branden- 
burg and  the  Palatine  of  Neuberij:  and  a  marriage 
between  the  Prince  of  Neuberg  and  a  Princess  of  Branden- 
burg was  to  have  inseparably  united  the  interests  of  the  two 
houses.  But  the  whole  scheme  Avas  upset  by  a  box  on 
the  ear,  which,  in  a  drunken  brawl,  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg  unfortunately  inflicted  upon  his  intended 
son-in-law.  From  this  moment  the  good  understanding 
between  the  two  houses  was  at  an  end.  The  Prince  of 
Neuberg  embraced  popery.  The  hand  of  a  princess  of 
Bavaria  rewarded  his  apostasy,  and  tlie  strong  support  of 
Bavaria  and  Spain  was  the  natural  result  of  both.  To 
secure  to  the  Palatine  the  exclusive  possession  of  Juliers, 
the  Spanish  troops  from  the  Netherlands  were  marched 
into  the  Palatinate.  To  rid  himself  of  these  guests,  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  called  the  Flemings  to  his 
assistance,  whom  he  sought  to  propitiate  by  embracing 
the  Calvinist  religion.  Both  Spanish  and  Dutch  armies 
appeared,  but,  as'it  seemed,  only  to  make  conquests  for 
themselves. 

The  neighboring  war  of  the  Netherlands  seemed  now 
about  to  be  decided  on  German  ground  ;  and  wliat  an 
inexhnustible  mine  of  combustibles  Iny  here  ready  for  it! 
The  T'rotestants  saw  with  consternation  the  Spaniards 
establishing  themselves  u])nTi  the  Lower  Phine  ;  with  still 
greater  anxiety  did  the  Pcmian  Catholics  sec  the  Hol- 
landers bursting  thri)Ugh  the  frontiers  of  the  emjn're. 
It  was  in  the  west  that  tlie  mine  was  expected  to  explode 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  59 

which  had  long  been  dug  under  the  whole  of  Germany. 
To  the  west  apprehension  and  anxiety  turned ;  but  the 
spark  which  kindled  the  flame  came  unexpectedly  from 
the  east. 

The  tranquillity  which  the  Letter  of  Majesty  of 
Rodolph  II.  had  established  in  Bohemia  lasted  for.  some 
time  under  the  administration  of  Matthias,  till  the 
nomination  of  a  new  heir  to  this  kingdom  in  the  jserson 
of  Ferdinand  of  Grjitz. 

This  prince,  whom  we  shall  afterwards  become  better 
acquainted  with  under  the  title  of  Ferdinand  II.,  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  had,  by  the  violent  extirpation  of  the 
Protestant  religion  within  his  hereditary  dominions,  an- 
nounced himself  as  an  inexorable  zealot  for  popery,  and 
was  consequently  looked  upon  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
part  of  Bohemia  as  the  future  pillar  of  their  church. 
The  declining  health  of  the  Emperor  brought  on  this 
hour  rapidly ;  and,  relying  on  so  powerful  a  supporter, 
the  Bohemian  Papists  began  to  treat  the  Protestants  with 
little  moderation.  The  Protestant  vassals  of  Roman 
Catholic  nobles,  in  particular,  experienced  the  harshest 
treatment.  At  length  several  of  the  former  were  in- 
cautious enough  to  speak  somewhat  loudly  of  their  hopes, 
and  by  threatening  hints  to  awaken  among  the  Prot- 
estants a  suspicion  of  their  future  sovereign.  But  this 
mistrust  would  never  have  broken  out  into  actual 
violence  had  the  Roman  Catholics  confined  themselves 
to  general  expressions,  and  not  by  attacks  on  individuals 
furnished  the  discontent  of  the  people  with  enterprising 
leaders. 

Henry  Matthias,  Count  Thurn,  not  a  native  of  Bohemia, 
but  proprietor  of  some  estates  in  that  kingdom,  had,  by 
his  zeal  for  the  Protestant  cause,  and  an  enthusiastic 
attachment  to  his  newly-adopted  country,  gained  the 
entire  confidence  of  the  Utraquists,  which  opened  him 
the  way  to  the  most  im])ortaut  posts.  He  had  fouglit 
with  great  glory  against  the  Turks,  and  won  by  a 
flattering  address  the  hearts  of  the  multitude.  Of  a  hot 
and  impetuous  disposition,  which  loved  tumult  because 
his  talents  shone  in  it  —  rasli  and  thoughtless  enough  to 
undertake  things   which    cold   prudence   and   a   calmer 


60  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

temper  would  not  have  ventured  upon  —  unscrupulous 
enough,  where  the  gratification  of  his  passions  was  con- 
cerned, to  sport  with  the  fate  of  thousands,  and  at  the 
same  time  politic  enough  to  hold  in  leading-strings  such 
a  people  as  the  Bohemians  then  were.  He  had  already 
taken  an  active  part  in  the  troubles  under  Rodolph's 
administration;  and  the  Letter  of  Majesty  which  the 
States  had  extorted  from  that  Emperor  was  chiefly  to  be 
laid  to  his  merit.  The  court  had  entrusted  to  him,  as 
burgrave  or  castellan  of  Calstein,  the  custody  of  the 
Bolfemian  crown  and  of  the  national  charter.  But  tlie 
nation  had  placed  in  his  hands  something  far  more 
important  —  itself —  with  the  office  of  defender  or  pro- 
tector of  the  faith.  The  aristocracy,  by  which  the 
Emperor  was  ruled,  imprudently  deprived  him  of  this 
harmless  guardianship  of  the  dead,  to  leave  him  his  full 
influence  over  the  living.  They  took  him  from  his  office 
of  burgrave,  or  constable  of  the  castle,  which  had  rendered 
him  dependent  on  the  court,  thereby  opening  his  eyes 
to  the  importance  of  the  other  which  remained,  and 
wounded  liis  vanity,  which  yet  was  the  thing  that  made 
his  ambition  harmless.  From  this  moment  he  was  act- 
uated solely  by  a  desire  of  revenge ;  and  the  opportunity 
of  gratifying  it  was  not  long  wanting. 

In  the  Royal  Letter  which  the  Bohemians  liad  extorted 
from  Rodolph  IL,  as  well  as  in  the  German  religious 
treaty,  one  material  article  remained  undetermined.  All 
the  privileges  granted  by  the  latter  to  the  Protestants 
were  conceived  in  favor  of  the  Estates  or  governing 
bodies,  not  of  the  subjects;  for  only  to  those  of _  the 
ecclesiastical  states  had  a  toleration,  and  that  precarious, 
been  conceded.  The  Bohemian  Letter  of  Majesty,  in  tjie 
same  manner,  spoke  only  of  the  Estates  and  imperial 
towns,  the  magistrates  of  which  liad  contrived  to  ol)tain 
equal  privileges  with  the  foriner.  These  alone  were  free 
to  erect  churches  and  schools,  and  openly  to  celebrate 
their  Protestant  worship;  in  all  other  towns,  it  was  left 
entirely  to  the  govenimcnt  to  which  they  belonged  to 
determine  the  religion  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Estates  of 
the  Empire  had  availed  themselves  of  this  ))rivilege  in  its 
fullest  extent;  the  secular,  indeed,  without  opposition; 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  61 

while  the  ecclesiastical,  in  whose  case  the  declaration  of 
Ferdinand  had  limited  this  privilege,  disputed,  not  with- 
out reason,  the  validity  of  that  limitation.  What  was  a 
disputed  j^oint  in  the  religious  treaty  Avas  left  still  more 
doubtful  in  the  Letter  of  Majesty ;  in  the  former  the 
construction  was  not  doubtful,  but  it  was  a  question  how 
far  obedience  might  be  compulsory ;  in  the  latter  tlie 
hiterpretation  was  left  to  the  states.  The  subjects  of  tlie 
ecclesiastical  Estates  in  Boliemia  thought  themselves 
entitled  to  the  same  rights  which  the  declaration  of 
Ferdinand  secured  to  the  subjects  of  German  bishops; 
they  considered  themselves  on  an  equality  with  the 
subjects  of  imperial  towns,  because  they  looked  upon  the 
ecclesiastical  property  as  part  of  tlie  royal  demesnes.  In 
the  little  town  of  Klostergrab,  subject  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Prague,  and  in  Braunau,  which  belonged  to  the  abbot 
of  that  monastery,  churches  were  founded  by  the  Pi-ot- 
estants,  and  completed,  notwitlistanding  the  opposition 
of  their  superiors  and  the  disapprobation  of  the  Empei-or. 
In  the  meantime  the  vigilance  of  the  defenders  had 
somewliat  relaxed,  and  the  court  thought  it  might  venture 
on  a  decisive  step.  By  the  Emperor's  orders  the  church 
at  Klostergrab  Avas  pulled  down,  that  at  Braunau  forcibly 
shut  uj),  and  the  most  turbulent  of  the  citizens  thrown 
into  prison.  A  general  commotion  among  the  Protestants 
was  the  consequence  of  this  measure ;  a  loud  outcry  was 
everywhere  raised  at  this  violation  of  the  Letter  of 
Majesty;  and  Count  Thurn,  animated  by  revenge,  and 
particularly  called  upon  by  his  office  of  defender,  showed 
himself  not  a  little  busy  inflaming  the  minds  of  the 
people.  At  his  instigation  deputies  were  summoned  to 
Prairue  from  every  circle  in  the  empire,  to  conceit  the 
necessary  measures  against  the  common  danger.  It  was 
resolved"  to  petition  the  Emperor  to  press  for  the  libera- 
tion of  the  prisoners.  The  answer  of  the  Emperor, 
already  offensive  to  the  states,  from  its  being  addressed, 
not  to"  them,  but  to  his  viceroy,  denounced  their  conduct 
as  illciial  and  rebellious,  justified  what  had  been  done  at 
Kloste^rgarb  and  Braunau  as  the  result  of  an  imperial 
mandate,  and  contained  some  passages  that  might  be 
constriied  into  threats. 


62  THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR. 

Count  Thurn  did  not  fail  to  augment  the  unfavorable 
impression  wiiich  this  imperial  edict  made  upon  tlie 
assembled  Estates.  He  pointed  out  to  them  the  danger 
in  which  all  who  had  signed  tlie  petition  were  involved, 
and  sought  by  working  on  their  resentment  and  fears  to 
hurry  them  into  violent  resolutions.  To  have  caused 
their  immediate  revolt  against  the  Emperor  would  have 
been,  as  yet,  too  '!^old  a  measure.  It  was  only  step  by 
step  that  he  would  lead  them  on  to  this  unavoidable 
result.  He  held  it,  therefore,  advisable  first  to  direct 
their  indignation  against  the  Emperor's  counsellors  ;  and 
for  that  purpose  circulated  a  report  that  the  imperial 
proclamation  had  been  drawn  up  by  the  government  at 
Prague,  and  only  signed  in  Vienna.  Among  the  imperial 
delegates,  the  chief  objects  of  the  popular  hatred,  were 
the  President  of  the  Chamber,  Slawata,  and  Baron 
Martinitz,  who  had  been  elected  in  place  of  Count  Thurn, 
Burgrave  of  Calstein.  Both  had  long  before  evinced 
pretty  openly  their  hostile  feelings  towards  the  Prot- 
estants, by  alone  refusing  to  be  present  at  the  sitting  at 
which  the  Letter  of  Majesty  had  been  inserted  in  the 
Bohemian  constitution.  A  thi'eat  was  made  at  the  time 
to  make  them  responsible  for  every  violation  of  the  Letter 
of  Majesty;  and  from  tliis  moment,  wliatever  evil  befell 
the  Protestants  was  set  down,  and  not  without  reason,  to 
their  account.  Of  all  the  Roman  Catholic  nobles,  these 
two  had  treated  their  Protestant  vassals  with  the  greatest 
harshness.  They  were  accused  of  hunting  them  Avith 
dogs  to  the  mass,  and  of  endeavoring  to  drive  them  to 
])opery  by  a  denial  of  the  rites  of  baptism,  marriage,  and 
burial.  Against  two  characters  so  unpopular  the  ])ubliG 
indignation  was  easily  excited,  and  they  were  marked  out 
for  a  sacrifice  to  the  general  indignation. 

On  the  23d  of  May,  1618,  the  deputies  appeared  armed, 
and  in  great  numbers,  at  the  royal  palace,  and  forced 
their  way  into  the  hall  where  the  Cotnmissioners  Stern- 
berg, Martinitz,  Lobkowitz,  and  Slawata  were  assembled. 
In  a  threatening  tone  they  denian<led  to  know  from  each 
of  them,  whether  he  had  taken  any  part,  or  had  consented 
to,  the  imperial  proclamation.  Stei-nberg  received  tliem 
with  composure,  Martinitz  and   Slawata  with   defiance. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  63 

This  decided  their  fate  ;  Sternberg  and  Lobkowitz,  less 
hated  and  more  feared,  were  led  by  the  arm  out  of  the 
room ;  Martinitz  and  Sla-wata  were  seized,  dragged  to  a 
window,  and  precipitated  from  a  height  of  eighty  feet 
into  the  castle  trench.  Their  creature,  tlie  secretary 
Fabricius,  was  thrown  after  them.  Tiiis  singular  mode 
of  execution  naturally  excited  the  surprise  of  civilized 
nations.  The  Bohemians  justified  it  as  a  national  custom, 
and  saw  nothing  remarkable  in  the  whole  affair,  excepting 
that  any  one  sliould  have  got  up  again  safe  and  sound 
after  such  a  fall.  A  dunghill,  on  which  the  imperial 
commissioners  chanced  to  be  deposited,  had  saved  them 
from  injury. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  this  summary  mode  of 
proceeding  would  much  increase  the  favor  of  the  parties 
with  the  Emperor,  but  this  was  the  very  position  to  wliich 
Count  Thurn  wished  to  bring  them.  If,  from  the  fear  oi 
uncertain  danger,  they  had  permitted  themselves  such  an 
act  of  violence,  the  certain  expectation  of  pvmishment, 
and  the  now  urgent  necessity  of  making  themselves 
secure,  would  plunge  them  still  deeper  into  guilt.  By 
this  brutal  act  of  self-redress  no  room  was  left  for  irreso- 
lution or  repentance,  and  it  seemed  as  if  a  single  crime 
could  be  absolved  only  by  a  series  of  violences.  As  the 
deed  itself  could  not  be  undone,  nothing  was  left  but  to 
disarm  the  hand  of  punishment.  Thirty  directors  were 
appointed  to  oi-ganize  a  regular  insurrection.  They  seized 
upon  all  the  offices  of  state,  and  all  the  imperial  revenues, 
took  into  their  own  service  the  royal  functionaries  and 
the  soldiei-s,  and  summoned  the  whole  Bohemian  nation 
to  avenge  the  common  cause.  The  Jesuits,  Svhom  the 
common  hatred  accused  as  the  instigators  of  every 
previous  oppression,  were  banished  the  kingdom,  and  this 
harsh  measure  the  Estates  found  it  necessary  to  justify 
in  a  formal  manifesto.  These  various  steps  were  taken 
for  the  preservation  of  the  royal  authority  and  the  laws— - 
the  lanofuasre  of  all  rebels  till  fortune  has  decided  in  their 
favor. 

The  emotion  which  the  news  of  the  Bohemian  insurrec- 
tion excited  at  the  hnperial  court  was  much  less  lively 
than  such  intelligence  deserved.     The  Emperor  Matthias 


64  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

was  no  longer  the  resolute  spirit  that  formerly  sought  out 
his  king  and  master  in  the  very  bosom  of  his  people,  and 
hurled  him  from  three  thrones.  The  confidence  and 
courage  which  had  animated  him  in  an  usurpation  de- 
serted him  in  a  legitimate  self-defense.  The  Boliemian 
rebels  had  first  taken  up  arms,  and  the  nature  of  circum- 
stances drove  him  to  join  them.  But  he  could  not  hope 
to  confine  such  a  war  to  Bohemia.  In  all  the  ten-itories 
under  his  dominion  the  Protestants  were  united  by  a 
dangerous  sympathy  —  the  common  danger  of  their 
religion  might  suddenly  combine  them  all  into  a  formi- 
dable republic.  What  could  he  oppose  to  such  an  enemy, 
if  the  Protestant  portion  of  his  subjects  deserted  him  ? 
And  would  not  both  parties  exhaust  themselves  in  so 
ruinous  a  civil  war  ?  How  much  was  at  stake  if  he  lost  ; 
and  if  he  won,  whom  else  would  he  destroy  but  his  own 
subjects  ? 

Considerations  such  as  these  inclined  the  Emperor  and 
his  council  to  concessions  and  pacific  measures,  but  it  was 
in  this  very  spirit  of  concession  that,  as  others  would  have 
it,  lay  the  origin  of  the  evil.  The  Archduke  Ferdinand 
of  Gratz  congratulated  the  Emperor  upon  an  event  which 
would  justify  in  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  the  sevei-est 
measures  against  the  Bohemian  Protestants.  "  Disobed- 
ience, lawlessness,  and  insurrection,"  he  said,  "  went 
always  hand-in-hand  with  Protestantism.  Every  privilege 
which  had  been  conceded  to  the  Estates  by  himself  and 
his  predecessor  had  had  no  other  effect  than  to  raise 
their  demands.  All  the  measures  of  the  heretics  were 
aimed  against  the  imperial  authority.  Stop  by  ste])  had 
they  advanced  from  defiance  to  defiance  up  to  this  last 
aggression  ;  in  a  short  time  they  Avould  assail  all  that  re- 
nuiined  to  be  assailed,  in  the  person  of  the  Emperor.  In 
arms  alone  was  there  any  safety  against  such  an  enemy  — 
peace  and  subordination  could  be  only  established  on 
the  ruins  of  their  dangerous  privileges ;  security  for  the 
Catholic  belief  v/as  to  be  found  only  in  the  total  destruc- 
tion of  this  sect.  Uncertain,  it  was  true,  might  be  the 
event  of  the  war,  but  iiKJvitnble  was  the  ruin  if  it  were 
pretermitted.  The  confiscation  of  the  lands  of  the  rebels 
would  richly  indemnify  thenx  for  its  exj)enses,  while  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  65 

terror  of  punishment  would  teach  the  other  states  the 
wisdom  of  a  prompt  obedience  in  future."  Were  the 
Bohemian  Protestants  to  bUime  if  they  armed  themselves 
in  time  against  the  enforcement  of  such  maxims '?  The 
insurrection  in  Bohemia,  besides,  was  directed  only 
against  the  successor  of  the  Emperor,  not  against  him- 
self, who  had  done  nothing  to  justify  the  alarm  of  the 
Protestants.  To  exclude  this  prince  from  the  Bohemian 
throne,  arms  had  before  been  taken  up  under  Matthias, 
thougii  as  long  as  this  Emperor  lived  his  subjects  had 
kept  within  the  bounds  of  an  apparent  submission. 

But  Bohemia  Avas  in  arms,  and,  unarmed,  the  Emperor 
dared  not  even  offer  them  peace.  For  this  purpose  Spain 
supplied  gold,  and  promised  to  send  troops  from  Italy 
and  the  Netherlands.  Count  Bucquoi,  a  native  of  the 
Netherlands,  was  named  generalissimo,  because  no  native 
could  be  trusted,  and  Count  Dampierre,  anotlier  foreigner, 
commanded  under  him.  Before  the  array  took  the  field 
the  Emperor  endeavored  to  bring  about  an  amicable 
arrangement  by  the  publication  of  a  manifesto.  In  this 
he  as1;ured  the  Bohemians,  "that  he  held  sacred  the 
Letter  of  Majesty  —  that  he  had  not  formed  any  resolu- 
tions inimical  to  their  religion  or  their  privileges,  and 
that  his  present  preparations  Avere  forced  upon  him  by 
tlieir  own.  As  soon  as  tlie  nation  laid  down  their  arms, 
he  also  would  disband  his  army."  But  tliis  gracious  letter 
failed  of  its  effect,  because  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection 
contrived  to  hide  from  the  people  the  Emperor's  good 
intentions.  Instead  of  this,  they  circulated  the  most 
alarming  reports  from  the  pulpit,  and  by  pamphlets,  and 
terrified  the  deluded  populace  with  threatened  liorrors  of 
another  Saint  Bartholomew's  that  existed  only  in  their 
own  imagination.  All  Bohemia,  with  the  exception  of 
three  towns,  Budweiss,  Krummau,  and  Pilsen,  took  part 
in  this  insurrection.  These  three  towns,  inhabited  princi- 
pally by  Roman  Catholics,  alone  had  the  courage,  in  this 
general  revolt,  to  hold  out  for  the  Emperor,  who  promised 
them  assistance.  But  it  could  not  escape  Count  Thurn 
how  dangerous  it  was  to  leave  in  hostile  hands  three 
places  of  such  importance,  which  would  at  all  tinies  keep 
open  for  the  imperial  troops  an  entrance  into  the  kingdom. 


66  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

With  pi'ompt  determination  he  appeared  before  Budweiss 
and  Krummau  in  the  hope  of  terrifying  them  into  a  surren- 
der. Krummau  surrendered,  but  all  his  attacks  were 
steadfastly  repulsed  by  Budweiss. 

And  now,  too,  the  Emperor  began  to  show  more 
earnestness  and  energy.  Bucquoi  and  Dampierre,  Avith 
two  armies,  fell  upon  the  Bohemian  territories,  which 
they  treated  as  a  hostile  country.  But  the  imperial 
generals  found  the  march  to  Prague  more  difficult  than 
they  had  expected.  Every  pass,  every  position  that  was 
the  least  tenable,  must  be  opened  by  the  sword,  and 
resistance  increased  at  each  fresh  step  they  took,  for  the 
outrages  of  their  troops,  chiefly  consisting  of  Hungarians 
and  Walloons,  drove  their  friends  to  revolt  and  their 
enemies  to  despair.  But  even  now  that  his  troops  had 
penetrated  into  Bohemia,  the  Emperor  continued  to  offer 
the  Estates  peace,  and  to  show  himself  ready  for  an 
amicable  adjustment.  But  the  new  prospects  which 
opened  upon  them  raised  the  courage  of  the  revolters. 
Moravia  espoused  their  party ;  and  from  Germany  ap- 
jjeared  to  them  a  defender  equally  intrepid  and  unex- 
pected, in  the  person  of  Count  Mansfeld. 

The  heads  of  the  Evangelic  Union  had  been  silent  but 
not  inactive  spectators  of  the  movements  in  Bohemia. 
Both  were  contending  for  the  same  cause  and  against  the 
same  enemy.  In  the  fate  of  the  Bohemians  their  con- 
federates in  the  faith  might  read  their  own ;  and  the 
cause  of  this  people  was  represented  as  of  solemn  concern 
to  the  whole  German  union.  True  to  these  principles, 
the  Unionists  supported  the  courage  of  tlie  insurgents  by 
promises  of  assistance ;  and  a  fortunate  accident  now 
enabled  them,  beyond  their  hopes,  to  fulfil  them. 

The  instrument  by  which  the  House  of  Austria  Avas 
humbled  in  Germany  was  Peter  Ernest,  Count  Mansfeld, 
the  son  of  a  distinguished  Austrian  officer,  Ernest  von 
Mansfeld,  who  for  some  time  had  commanded  Avith  repute 
the  Spanish  army  in  the  Netherlands.  His  first  cam})aigna 
in  Juliers  and  Alsace  had  been  made  in  the  servica  of 
this  house,  and  under  the  banner  of  the  Archduke  Leo- 
pold, against  the  Protestant  religion  and  the  liberties  of 
Germany.     But  insensibly  Avon  by  the  princii^les  of  this 


THE    TIIIKTY    YEAUS'    WAR.  67 

religion,  he  abandoned  a  leader  whose  selfishness  denied 
him  the  reimbursement  of  the  moneys  expended   in  his 
cause,  and  he  transferred  his  zeal  and  a  victorious  sword 
to  the  Evangelic  Union,     It  happened  just  then  that  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  an  ally  of  the  Union,  demanded  assistance 
in    a  war  against  Spain.     They    assigned    to   him   their 
newly-acquired  servant,  and  Mansfeld    received    instruc- 
tions to  raise  an  army  of  four  thousand  men  in  Germany, 
iu  the  cause  and  in  the  pay  of  the  duke.     The  army  was 
ready  to  march  at  the  very  moment  when  the  flames  of 
war  burst  out  in  Bohemia,  and  the  duke,  who  at  the  time 
did  not  stand  in  need  of  its    services,   placed  it  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Union.     Nothing  could  be  more  welcome 
to  these  troops  than  the  prospect  of  aiding  their  confed- 
erates in  Bohemia  at  the  cost  of  a  third  party.     Mansfeld 
received  orders  forthwith  to  march  Avith  these  four  thou- 
sand men  into  that  kingdom  ;  and  a  pretended  Bohemian 
commission  was  given  to  blind  the  public  as  to  the  true 
author  of  this  levy. 

This  Mansfeld  now  appeared  in  Bohemia,  and,  by  the 
occupation  of  Pilsen,  strongly  fortified  and  favorable  to 
the  Emperor,  obtained  a  fij-m  footing  in  the  country. 
The  courage  of  the  rebels  Avas  farther  increased  by  succors 
Avhich  the"  Silesian  States  desjiatclied  to  their  assistance. 
BetAveen  these  and  the  Imperialists  several  battles  were 
fought,  far  indeed  from  decisive,  but  only  on  that  account 
the  more  destructive,  which  served  as  the  prelude  to  a 
more  serious  Avar.  To  check  the  vigor  of  his  military 
operations,  a  negotiation  Avas  entered  into  with  the  Em- 
peror, and  a  disposition  Avas  shoAvn  to  accept  the  proffered 
mediation  of  Saxony.  But  before  the  event  could  prove 
how  little  sincerity  there  was  in  these  proposals,  the 
Emperor  Avas  removed  from  the  scene  by  death. 

What  now  had  Matthias  done  to  justify  the  expecta- 
tions w^hich  he  had  excited  by  the  overthrow  of  his  pre- 
decessor? Was  it  worth  while  to  ascend  a  brother's 
throne  through  guilt,  and  then  maintain  it  Avith  so  little 
dignity,  and  "leave  it  with  so  little  renoAvn  ?  As  long  as 
Matthias  sat  on  the  throne  he  had  to  atone  for  the  im- 
prudence by  which  he  had  gained  it.  To  enjoy  the  real 
dignity   a  fcAV  years  sooner  he    had   shackled    the  free 


68  THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAE. 

exei'cise  of  its  prerogatives.  The  slender  portion  of  inde- 
pendence left  him  by  the  growing  power  of  the  Estates, 
was  still  farther  lessened  by  tlie  encroachments  of  his 
relations.  Sickly  and  childless  he  saw  the  attention  of 
the  world  turned  to  an  ambitious  heir  Avho  was  impa- 
tiently anticipating  his  fate;  and  who,  by  his  interference 
with  the  closing  administration,  was  already  opening  his 
own. 

With  Matthias  the  reigning  line  of  the  German  House 
of  Austria  was  in  a  manner  extinct ;  for  of  all  the  sons  ot 
Maximilian  one  only  was  now  alive,  the  weak  and  child- 
less Archduke  Albert,  in  the  Netherlands,  Avho  had 
already  renounced  his  claims  to  the  inheritance  in  favor 
of  the  line  of  Gratz.  The  Spanish  House  had  also,  in  a 
secret  bond,  resigned  its  pretensions  to  the  Austrian 
possessions  in  behalf  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Styria, 
in  whom  the  branch  of  Hapsburg  was  about  to  put  forth 
new  shoots,  and  the  former  greatness  of  Austria  to 
experience  a  revival. 

The  father  of  P^'erdinand  was  the  Archduke  Chai-les  of 
Carniola,  Carinthia,  and  Styria,  the  youngest  brother  of 
Emperor  Maximilian  II. ;  his  mother  a  princess  of  Bavaria. 
Having  lost  his  father  at  twelve  years  of  age,  he  was 
entrusted  by  the  archduchess  to  the  guardiansliip  of  her 
brother  William,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  under  whose  eyes  he 
was  instructed  and  educated  by  Jesuits  at  the  Academy 
of  Ingolstadt.  What  principles  he  was  likely  to  imbibe 
by  his  intercourse  with  a  prince,  who  from  motives  of 
devotion  had  abdicated  his  government,  may  be  easily 
conceived.  Care  was  taken  to  point  out  to  him,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  weak  indulgence  of  Maximilian's  house  towards 
the  adherents  of  the  new  doctrines,  and  the  consequent 
troubles  of  their  dominions  ;  on  tlie  other,  the  blessings 
of  Bavaria,  and  the  inflexible  religious  zeal  of  its  rulers  ; 
between  these  two  examples  he  was  left  to  choose  for 
liiiiiself. 

Formed  in  this  school  to  be  a  stout  champion  of  the 
faith,  and  a  prompt  instrument  of  the  church,  he  left 
Bavaria,  after  a  residence  of  five  years,  to  assume  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  hereditary  dominions.  The  Estates  of 
Carniola,  Carinthia,  and  Styria,  who,  before  doing  liomage, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  69 

demanded  a  guarantee  for  freedom  of  religion,  were  told 
that  religious  liberty  has  nothing  to  do  with  their  allegi- 
ance. The  oath  was  put  to  them  without  conditions,  and 
unconditionally  taken.  Many  years,  however,  elapsed, 
ere  the  designs  Avhich  had  been  planned  at  Ingolstadt 
were  ripe  for  execution.  Before  attempting  to  carry 
them  into  effect,  he  sought  in  person  at  Loretto  the  favor 
of  the  Virgin,  and  received  the  apostolic  benediction  in 
Rome  at  the  feet  of  Clement  VIII. 

These  designs  were  nothing  less  than  the  expulsion  of 
Protestantism  from  a  country  where  it  had  the  advantage 
of  numbers,  and  had  been  legally  recognized  by  a  formal 
act  of  toleration,  granted  by  his  father  to  the  noble  and 
knightly  estates  of  "the  land.  A  grant  so  formally  ratified 
could  not  be  revoked  without  danger ;  but  no  difficulties 
could  deter  the  pious  pupil  of  the  Jesuits.  The  example 
of  other  states,  both  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
which  within  their  own  territories  had  exercised  un- 
questioned a  right  of  reformation,  and  the  abuse  which  the 
Estates  of  Styria  made  of  their  religious  liberties,  would 
serve  as  a  justification  of  this  violent  procedure.  Under 
the  shelter  of  an  absurd  positive  law  those  of  equity  and 
prudence  might,  it  is  thought,  be  safely  despised.  In 
the  execution  of  these  unrighteous  designs  Ferdinand 
did,  it  must  be  owned,  display  no  common  courage  and 
perseverance.  Without  tumult,  and  we  may  add,  with- 
out cruelty,  he  suppressed  the  Protestant  service  in  one 
town  after  another,  and  in  a  few  years,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  Germany,  this  dangerous  work  was  brought  to  a 
successful  end. 

But,  while  the  Roman  Catholics  admired  him  as  a  hero, 
and  the  champion  of  the  church,  the  Protestants  began 
to  combine  against  hira  as  their  most  dangerous  enemy. 
And  yet  Matthias'  intention  to  bequeath  to  hira  the  suc- 
cession met  with  little  or  no  opposition  in  the  elective 
states  of  Austria.  Even  the  Bohemians  agreed  to  receive 
him  as  their  future  king  on  very  favorable  conditions. 
It  was  not  until  afterwards,  when  they  had  experienced 
the  pernicious  influence  of  his  councils  on  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Emperor,  that  their  anxiety  was  first  excited; 
and  then  several  projects,  in  his  handwriting,  which  an 


70  THE    THIRTY   YSARS'    WAR. 

unlucky  chance  threw  into  their  hands,  as  they  pLainly 
evinced  his  disposition  towards  them,  carried  their 
apprehension  to  tlie  utmost  pitch.  In  particular,  they 
were  alarmed  by  a  secret  family  compact  with  Spain,  by 
which,  in  default  of  heirs-male  of  his  own  body,  Fer- 
dinand bequeathed  to  that  crown  the  kingdom  of  Bo- 
hemia, without  first  consulting  the  wishes  of  that  nation, 
and  without  regard  to  its  rights  of  free  election.  The 
many  enemies,  too,  which  by  his  reforms  in  Styria  tliat 
prince  had  j^rovoked  among  the  Protestants,  Avere  very 
prejudicial  to  his  interests  in  Bohemia;  and  some  Styrian 
emigrants,  who  had  taken  refuge  there,  bringing  with 
them  into  their  adopted  country  hearts  overflowing  with 
a  desire  of  revenge,  were  pai'ticularly  active  in  exciting 
the  flame  of  revolt.  Thus  ill-affected  did  Ferdinand  find 
the  Bohemians  when  he  succeeded  Matthias. 

So  bad  an  understanding  between  the  nation  and  the 
candidate  for  the  throne  would  have  raised  a  storm  even 
in  the  most  peaceable  succession  ;  how  much  more  so  at 
the  present  moment,  before  the  ardor  of  insurrection  had 
cooled  ;  when  the  nation  had  just  recovered  its  dignity, 
and  reasserted  its  rights  ;  when  they  still  held  arms  in 
their  hands,  and  the  consciousness  of  unity  had  awakened 
an  enthusiastic  reliance  on  their  own  strength ;  when  by 
past  success,  by  the  promises  of  foreign  assistance,  and 
by  visionary  expectations  of  the  future,  their  courage  had 
been  raised  to  an  undoubting  confidence.  Disregarding 
the  rights  already  conferred  on  Ferdinand,  the  Estates 
declared  the  throne  vacant,  and  their  right  of  election 
entirely  unfettered.  All  hopes  of  their  peaceful  submis- 
sion were  at  an  end,  and  if  Ferdinand  M'ished  still  to  wear 
the  crown  of  Bohemia  he  must  choose  between  pur- 
chasing it  at  the  sacrifice  of  all  that  would  make  a  crown 
desirable,  or  winning  it  sword  in  hand. 

But  with  what  means  was  it  to  be  won?  Turn  his  eyes 
where  he  would  the  fire  of  revolt  Avas  burning.  Silesia 
liad  already  joined  the  insurgents  in  Bohemia;  Moravia 
Avas  on  the  point  of  following  its  example.  In  Upper 
and  Lower  Austria  the  s]urit  of  liberty  Avas  awake,  as  it 
liad  been  under  Eodolj)h,  and  the  Estates  refused  to  do 
homage.       Ilungai-y   Avas   menaced    Avith   an    inroad    by 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    AVAR.  71 

Prince  Bethlen  Gabor,  on  the  side  of  Transylvania;  a 
secret  arming  among  the  Turks  spread  consternation 
among  the  provinces  to  the  eastward  ;  and,  to  complete 
his  perplexities,  the  Protestants  also  in  his  hereditary- 
dominions,  stimulated  by  the  general  example,  were 
ao-ain  raising  their  heads.  In  that  quarter  their  numbei's 
were  overwhelming ;  in  niost  places  they  had  possession 
of  the  revenues  which  Ferdinand  would  need  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  war.  The  neutral  began  to  waver, 
the  faithful  to  be  discouraged,  the  turbulent  alone  to  be 
animated  and  confident.  One  half  of  Germany  encouraged 
the  rebels,  the  other  inactively  awaited  the  issue  ;  Spanish 
assistance  was  still  very  remote.  The  moment  which 
had  brought  him  everything  threatened  also  to  deprive 
him  of  all. 

And  when  he  now,  yielding  to  the  stern  law  of  necessity, 
made  overtures  to  tiie  Bohemian  rebels,  all  his  proposals 
for  peace  were  insolently  rejected.  Count  Thurn,  at  the 
head  of  an  army,  entered  Moravia  to  brin^^  this  province, 
^vhich  alone  continued  to  waver,  to  a  decision.  The  ap- 
pearance of  their  friends  is  the  signal  of  revolt  for  the 
Moravian  Protestants.  Brunn  is  taken,  the  remainder  of 
the  country  yields  with  free  will ;  throughout  the  province 
government  and  religion  are  changed.  Swelling  as  it 
iiows,  the  torrent  of  rebellion  pours  down  upon  Austria, 
where  a  party,  holding  similar  sentiments,  receives  it  with 
a  joyful  concurrence.  Henceforth  there  should  be  no 
more  distinctions  of  religion ;  equality  of  rights  should 
be  guaranteed  to  all  Cliristian  churches.  They  hear  that 
a  foreign  force  has  been  invited  into  the  country  to 
oppress  the  Bohemians.  Let  them  be  sought  out,  and 
the  enemies  of  liberty  pursued  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Not  an  arm  is  raised  in  defence  of  the  Archduke,  and  the 
rebels,  at  length,  encamp  before  Vienna  to  besiege  their 


sovereign 


Ferdinand  had  sent  his  children  from  Gratz,  where 
they  were  no  longer  safe,  to  the  Tyrol ;  he  himself  awaited 
the  insurgents  in  his  capital.  A  handful  of  soldiers  was 
all  he  could  oppose  to  the  enraged  multitude  ;  these  few- 
were  without  pay  or  provisions,  and  therefore  little  to  be 
depended  on.     Vienna  was  unprepared  for  a  long  siege. 


72  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

The  party  of  the  Protestants,  ready  at  any  moment  to 
join  the  Bohemians,  had  the  })reponderance  in  the  city ; 
those  in  the  country  liad  ah-eady  begun  to  levy  troops 
against  liim.  Already,  in  imagination,  the  Protestant 
populace  saw  tlie  Emperor  shut  up  in  a  monastery,  his 
territories  divided,  and  his  children  educated  as  Prot- 
estants. Confiding  in  secret,  and  surrounded  by  public 
enemies,  he  saw  the  chasm  every  moment  widening  to 
engulf  his  hopes  and  even  himself.  The  Bohemian  bullets 
were  already  falling  upon  the  imperial  palace,  when 
sixteen  Austrian  barons  forcibly  entered  his  chamber, 
and  inveighing  against  him  with  loud  and  bitter  re- 
proaches, endeavored  to  force  him  into  a  confederation 
with  the  Bohemians.  One  of  them  seizing  him  by  the 
button  of  his  doublet,  demanded,  in  a  tone  of  menace, 
"Ferdinand,  wilt  thou  sign  it?" 

Who  would  not  be  pardoned  had  he  wavered  in  this 
frightful  situation  ?  Yet  Ferdinand  still  remembered  the 
dignity  of  a  Ploman  emperor.  No  alternative  seemed 
left  to  him  but  an  immediate  flight  or  submission  ;  laymen 
urged  him  to  the  one,  priests  to  the  other.  If  he  aban- 
doned the  city  it  would  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands ; 
with  Vienna,  Austria  was  lost ;  with  Austria,  the  imperial 
throne.  Ferdinand  abandoned  not  his  capital,  and  as 
little  would  he  hear  of  conditions. 

The  Archduke  is  still  engaged  in  altercation  with  the 
deputed  barons,  when  all  at  once  a  sound  of  trumpets  is 
heard  in  the  palace  square.  Terror  and  astonishment  take 
possession  of  all  present ;  a  fearful  report  pervades  the 
palace;  one  deputy  after  another  disappears.  Many  of 
the  nobility  and  the  citzens  hastily  take  refuge  in  the 
camp  of  Thurn.  This  sudden  change  is  effected  by  a 
regiment  of  Dampierre's  cuirassiers,  who  at  that  moment 
marched  into  the  city  to  defend  the  Archduke.  A  body 
of  infantry  soon  followed  ;  reassured  by  their  appearance, 
several  of  the  Roman  Catholic  citizens,  and  even  the 
students  themselves,  take  up  arms.  A  re])ort  which 
arrived  just  at  the  same  time  from  Bohemia  made  his 
deliverance  complete.  The  Flemish  general,  Bucquoi, 
had  totally  defeated  Count  Mansfeld  at  Budweiss,  and 
was   marching   upon   Prague.      The    Bohemians   hastily 


THE   THIRTY   YEAKS'    WAR.  73 

broke  up  their  camp  before  Vienna  to  protect  their  own 


And  now  also  the  passes  were  free  which  the  enemy- 
had  taken  possession  of  in  order  to  obstruct  Ferdinand's 
progress  to  his  coronation  at  Frankfort.  If  the  accession 
to  the  imperial  throne  was  im])ortant  for  the  plans  of  the 
Kino-  of  Hungary,  it  was  of  still  greater  consequence  at  the 
present  moment,  when  his  noinination  as  Emperor  would 
afford  the  most  unsuspicious  and  decisive  proof  of  the 
dignity  of  his  person,  and  of  the  justice  of  his  cause, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  would  give  him  a  hope  of 
sui)port  from  the  Empire.  But  the  same  cabal  which 
opposed  him  in  his  hereditary  dominions  labored  also  to 
counteract  him  in  his  canvass  for  the  imperial  dignity. 
No  Austrian  prince,  they  maintained,  ought  to  ascend 
the  throne ;  least  of  all  Ferdinand,  the  bigoted  persecutor 
of  their  religion,  the  slave  of  Spain  and  of  the  Jesuits. 
To  prevent  this  the  crown  had  been  offered,  even  during 
the  lifetime  of  Matthias,  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  and,  on 
his  refusal,  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  As  some  difficulty 
Avas  experienced  in  settling  Avith  the  latter  the  conditions 
of  acceptance,  it  was  sought,  at  all  events,  to  delay  the 
election  till  some  decisive  blow  in  Austria  or  Bohemia 
should  annihilate  all  the  hopes  of  Ferdinand,  and  incapa- 
citate him  from  any  competition  for  this  dignity.  The 
members  of  the  Union  left  no  stone  unturned  to  gain  over 
from  Ferdinand  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,  which  was 
bound  to  Austrian  interests ;  they  represented  to  this 
court  the  dangers  with  which  the  Protestant  religion,  and 
even  the  constitution  of  the  empire,  were  threatened  by  the 
princii)les  of  this  prince  and  his  Spanish  alliance.  By 
the  elevation  of  Ferdinand  to  the  imperial  throne, 
Germany,  they  further  asserted,  would  be  involved  in 
the  private  quarrels  of  this  prince,  and  bring  upon  itself 
the  arms  of  Bohemia.  But  in  sj.ite  of  all  opposing 
influences  the  day  of  election  was  fixed,  Ferdinand 
summoned  to  it  'as  lawful  King  of  Bohemia,  and  his 
electoral  vote,  after  a  fruitless  resistance  on  the  part  of 
the  Bohemian  Estates,  acknoAvledged  to  be  good.  The 
votes  of  the  three  ecclesiastical  electorates  were  for  him. 
Saxony   was   favorable   to  him,  Brandenburg  made   no 


74  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

opposition,  and  a  decided  majority  declared  him  Emperor 
in  1619.  Tims  he  saw  the  most  doubtful  of  his  crowns 
placed  first  of  all  on  his  head ;  but  a  few  days  after  he 
lost  that  which  he  had  reckoned  among  the  most  certain 
of  his  possessions.  While  he  was  tlius  elected  Emperor 
in  Frankfort,  he  was  in  Prague  deprived  of  the  Bohemian 
throne. 

Almost  all  of  his  German  hereditary  dominions  had  in 
the  meantime  entered  into  a  formidable  league  with  the 
Bohemians,  whose  insolence  now  exceeded  all  bounds. 
In  a  general  Diet,  the  latter,  on  the  17th  of  August,  1619, 
proclaimed  the  Emperor  an  enemy  to  the  Bohemian 
religion  and  liberties,  who  by  his  pernicious  counsels  had 
alienated  from  them  tlie  affections  of  the  late  Emperor, 
had  furnished  troops  to  oppress  them,  had  given  their 
country  as  a  prey  to  foreigners,  and  finally,  in  contraven- 
tion of  the  national  rights,  liad  bequeathed  the  crown,  by 
a  secret  compact,  to  Spain ;  they  therefore  declared  tliat 
he  had  forfeited  whatever  title  he  might  otherwise  have 
had  to  the  crown,  and  immediately  proceeded  to  a  new 
election.  As  this  sentence  was  pronounced  by  Protest- 
ants, their  choice  could  not  well  fall  upon  a  Roman 
Catholic  prince,  though,  to  save  appearances,  some  voices 
were  raised  for  Bavaria  and  Savoy,  But  the  violent 
relicrious  animosities  which  divided  the  evangelical  and 
the  reformed  parties  among  the  Protestants  impeded 
for  some  time  the  election  even  of  a  Protestant  king; 
till  at  last  the  address  and  activity  of  the  Calvinists 
carried  the  day  from  the  numerical  superiority  of  the 
Lutherans. 

Among  all  the  princes  Avho  were  competitors  for  this 
dignity,  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederick  V.  had  the  best 
grounded  claims  on  the  confidence  and  gratitude  of  the 
Bohemians ;  and,  among  tliem  all,  tliere  was  no  one  in 
whose  case  the  private  interests  of  particular  Estates,  and 
the  attachment  of  the  people,  seemed  to  be  justified  by 
so  many  considerations  of  state.  Frederick  V.  Avas  a  free 
and  lively  spirit,  of  great  goodness  of  heart  and  regal 
liberality.  lie  was  the  head  of  the  Calvinistic  party  in 
Germany,  the  leader  of  tlie  Union,  whose  resources  were 
at  his  dis2)osal,  a  near  relation  of  the  Duke  of  Jiavaria, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  75 

and  a  son-in-law  of  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  who  might 
lend  him  his  powerful  support.  All  these  considerations 
were  prominently  and  successfully  brought  forward  by 
the  Calvinists,  and  Frederick  V.  was  chosen  king  by  the 
Assembly  at  Prague  amidst  prayers  and  tears  of  joy. 

The  whole  proceedings  of  the  Diet  at  Prague  had  been 
premeditated,  and  Frederick  himself  had  taken  too  active 
a  share  in  the  matter  to  feel  at  all  surprised  at  the  offer 
made  to  him  by  the  Bohemians.  But  now  the  immediate 
glitter  of  this  throne  dazzled  him,  and  the  magnitude  both 
of  ^his  elevation  and  his  delinquency  made  his  weak  mind 
to  tremble.  After  the  usual  manner  of  pusillanimous 
spirits,  he  sought  to  confirm  himself  in  his  purpose  by  the 
opinions  of  others  ;  but  these  opinions  had  no  weight 
with  him  when  they  ran  counter  to  his  own  cherislied 
wishes.  Saxony  and  Bavaria,  of  whom  he  sought  advice, 
all  his  brother  electors,  all  wlio  compared  the  magnitude 
of  the  design  with  his  capacities  and  resources,  warned 
him  of  the  danger  into  which  he  was  about  to  rush.  Even 
King  James  of  England  preferred  to  see  his  son-in-law 
deprived  of  this  crown  than  that  the  sacred  majesty  of 
kings  should  be  outraged  by  so  dangerous  a  precedent. 
But  of  what  avail  was  the  voice  of  prudence  against  the 
seductive  glitter  of  a  crown  ?  In  the  moment  of  boldest 
determination,  when  they  are  indignantly  rejecting  the 
consecrated  branch  of  a  race  which  had  governed  them 
for  two  centuries,  a  free  people  throws  itself  imo  his  arms. 
Confiding  in  his  courage,  they  choose  him  as  their  leader 
in  tlie  dangerous  career  of  glory  and  liberty.  To  him,  as 
to  its  born  champion,  an  oppressed  religion  looks  for 
shelter  and  support  against  its  persecutors.  Could  he 
have  the  weakness  to  listen  to  his  fears,  and  to  betray  the 
cause  of  religion  and  liberty?  This  religion  proclaims  to 
liim  its  own  preponderance  and  the  Aveakness  of  its 
rival,  —  two-thirds  of  the  power  of  Austria  are  now  in 
arms  against  Austria  itself,  while  a  formidable  confed- 
eracy, already  formed  in  Transylvania,  Avould,  by  a  hostile 
attack,  further  distract  even  the  weak  remnant  of  its 
power.  Could  inducements  such  as  these  fail  to  awaken 
his  ambition,  or  such  hopes  to  animate  and  inflame  bis 
resolution  ? 


76  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

A  few  moments  of  calm  consideration  Avould  have 
sufficed  to  sliow  the  danger  of  the  undertaking  and  the 
com})arative  worthlessness  of  the  prize.  But  the  tempta- 
tion spoke  to  his  feelings ;  the  warning  only  to  his 
reason.  It  was  his  misfortune  that  his  nearest  and  most 
influential  counsellors  es2)0used  the  side  of  his  passions. 
Tlie  aggrandizement  of  their  master's  power  opened  to 
the  amljition  and  avarice  of  his  Palatine  servants  an 
unlimited  field  for  their  gratification ;  this  anticipated 
triumph  of  their  church  kindled  the  ardor  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  fanatic.  Could  a  mind  so  weak  as  that  of  Ferdinaind 
resist  the  delusions  of  his  counsellors,  Avho  exaggerated 
his  resources  and  his  strength  as  much  as  they  under- 
rated those  of  his  enemies  ;  or  the  exhortations  of  his 
preachers,  who  announced  the  effusions  of  their  fanatical 
zeal  as  the  immediate  inspiration  of  heaven  ?  The  dreams 
of  astrology  filled  his  mind  with  visionary  hopes ;  even 
love  conspired,  with  its  irresistible  fascination,  to  complete 
the  seduction.  *' Had  you,"  demanded  the  Electress, 
"  confidence  enough  in  yourself  to  accept  the  hand  of  a 
king's  daughter,  and  have  you  misgivings  about  taking 
a  CTown  which  is  voluntarily  offered  you?  I  would 
rather  eat  bread  at  thy  kingly  table  than  feast  at  thy 
electoral  board." 

Frederick  accepted  the  Bohemian  crown.  The  corona- 
tion was  celebrated  with  unexampled  pomp  at  Prague, 
for  the  nation  disjilayed  all  its  riches  in  honor  of  its  own 
work.  Silesia  and  Moravia,  the  adjoining  provinces  to 
Bohemia,  followed  their  example,  and  did  homage  to 
Frederick.  The  reformed  faith  was  enthroned  in  all  the 
churches  of  the  kingdom  ;  the  rejoicings  were  unbounded, 
their  attachment  to  their  new  king  bordered  on  adoration. 
Deinnark  and  Sweden,  Holland  and  Venice,  and  several 
of  tlie  Dutch  states,  acknowledged  him  as  laAvful  sover- 
ereign,  and  Frederick  now  prepared  to  maintain  his  new 
acquisition. 

His  principal  hopes  rested  on  Prince  Bethlen  Gabor  of 
Transylvania.  This  foi-midable  enemy  of  Austria,  and 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  not  content  Avith  the 
principality  whicli,  with  tlie  assistajice  of  the  Turks,  he  had 
wrested  from  his  legitimate  prince,  Gabriel  Bathori,  gladly 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  77 

seized  this  opportunity  of  aggrandizing  himself  at  the 
expense  of  Austria,  which  had  hesitated  to  acknowledge 
him  as  sovereign  of  Transylvania.  An  attack  upon  Hun- 
gary and  Austria  was  concerted  with  the  Bohemian  rebels, 
and  both  armies  were  to  unite  before  the  capital.  Mean- 
time, Bethlen  Gabor,  under  the  mask  of  friendship,  dis- 
guised the  true  object  of  his  warlike  preparations,  artfully 
promising  the  Emperor  to  lure  the  Bohemians  into  the 
toils  by  a  pretended  offer  of  assistance,  and  to  deliver 
tip  to  iiim  alive  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection.  All  at 
once,  however,  he  appeared  in  a  hostile  attitude  in  Upper 
Hungary.  Before  him  went  terror,  and  devastation 
behind ;"  all  opposition  yielded,  and  at  Presbnrg  he 
received  the  Hungarian  crown.  The  Emperor's  brother, 
who  governed  in  Vienna,  trembled  for  the  capital.  He 
hastily  summoned  General  Bucquoi  to  his  assistance,  and 
the  retreat  of  the  Imperialists  drew  the  Bohemians,  a 
second  time,  before  the  walls  of  Vienna.  Keinforced  by 
twelve  thousand  Transylvanians,  and  soon  after  joined  by 
the  victorious  army  of  Bethlen  Gabor,  they  again  menaced 
the  capital  with  assault ;  all  the  country  round  Vienna 
was  laid  w^aste,  the  navigation  of  the  Danube  closed,  all 
supplies  cut  off,  and  the  horrors  of  famine  were  threatened. 
Ferdinand,  hastily  i-ecalled  to  his  capital  by  this  urgent 
danger,  saw  himself  a  second  time  on  the  brink  of  ruin. 
But  want  of  provisions,  and  the  inclement  weather,  finally 
compelled  the  Bohemians  to  go  into  quarters,  a  defeat  in 
Hungary  recalled  Bethlen  Gabor,  and  thus  once  more  had 
fortune  rescued  the  Emperor. 

In  a  few  weeks  the  scene  was  changed,  and  by  his  pru- 
dence and  activity  Ferdinand  improved  his  position  as 
rapidly  as  Frederick,  by  indolence  and  impolicy,  ruined 
his.  The  Estates  of  Lower  Austria  were  regained  to 
their  allegiance  by  a  confirmation  of  their  privileges;  and 
the  few  who  still  held  out  were  declared  guilty  of  lese- 
majeste  and  high  treason.  During  the  election  of  Frank- 
fort he  had  contrived,  by  personal  representations,  to 
win  over  to  his  cause  the  ecclesiastical  electors,  and  also 
Maximilian,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  at  Munich.  The  whole 
issue  of  the  war,  the  fate  of  Frederick  and  the  Emperor, 
were  now  dependent  on  the  part  which  the  Union  and  the 


78  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

League  should  take  in  the  troubles  of  Bohemia.  It  was 
evidently  of  importance  to  all  the  Protestants  of  Germany 
that  the  King  of  Bohemia  should  be  supported,  while  it 
was  equally  the  interests  of  the  Roman  Catholics  to 
prevent  the  ruin  of  the  Emperor.  If  the  Protestants 
succeeded  in  Bohemia,  all  the  Roman  Catholic  princes  in 
Germany  might  tremble  for  their  possessions;  if  they 
failed,  the  Emperor  would  give  laws  to  Protestant  Ger- 
many. Thus  Ferdinand  put  the  League,  Frederick  the 
Union,  in  motion.  The  ties  of  relationship  and  a  personal 
attachment  to  the  Emperor,  his  brother-in-law,  Avith 
whom  he  had  been  educated  at  Ingolstadt,  zeal  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  Avhich  seemed  to  be  in  the  most 
imminent  peril,  and  the  suggestions  of  the  Jesuits,  com- 
bined with  the  suspicious  movements  of  the  Union,  moved 
the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  and  all  the  pi'inces  of  the  League, 
to  make  the  cause  of  Ferdinand  their  own. 

According  to  the  terms  of  a  treaty  with  the  Emperor, 
which  assured  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  compensation  for 
all  the  expenses  of  the  war,  or  the  losses  he  might  sustain, 
Maximilian  took,  with  full  powers,  the  command  of  the 
troops  of  the  League,  which  were  ordered  to  march  to  the 
assistance  of  the  Emperor  against  the  Bohemian  rebels. 
The  leaders  of  the  Union,  instead  of  delaying  by  every 
means  this  dangerous  coalition  of  the  League  with  the 
Emperor,  did  everything  m  their  power  to  accelerate  it. 
Could  they,  they  thought,  but  once  drive  the  Roman 
Catholic  League  to  take  an  open  part  in  the  Bohemian 
war  they  might  reckon  on  similar  measures  from  all  the 
members  and  allies  of  the  Union.  Without  some  open 
step  taken  by  the  Roman  Catholics  against  the  Union  no 
effectual  confederacy  of  the  Protestant  powers  was  to  be 
looked  for.  They  seized,  therefore,  the  present  emer- 
gency of  the  troubles  in  Bohemia  to  demand  from  the 
Roman  Catholics  the  abolition  of  their  past  grievances, 
and  full  security  for  the  future  exercise  of  their  religion. 
They  addressed  this  demand,  Avhich  was  moreover 
couched  in  threatening  language,  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
as  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  they  insisted  on 
an  immediate  and  categorical  answer.  JMaximilian  might 
decide  for  or  against  them,  still  their  point  was  gained ; 


THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAR.  79 

his  concession,  if  he  yielded,  woukl  deprive  the  Roman 
Catholic  party  of  its  most  powerful  protector ;  his  refusal 
would  arm  the  whole  Protestant  party,  and  render 
inevitable  a  war  in  which  they  hoped  to  be  the  conquerors. 
Maximilian,  firmly  attached  to  the  opposite  party  from 
so  many  other  considerations,  took  the  demands  of  the 
Union  as  a  formal  declaration  of  hostilities,  and  quickened 
his  preparations.  While  Bavaria  and  the  League  were 
thus  arming  in  the  Emperor's  cause  negotiations  for  a 
subsidy  were  opened  wnth  the  S])anish  court.  All  the 
difficulties  with  which  the  indolent  ])olicy  of  that  ministry 
met  tliis  demand  were  happily  surmounted  by  the  im])erial 
ambassador  at  Madrid,  Count  Khevenhuller.  In  addition 
to  a  subsidy  of  a  million  of  florins,  which  from  time  to 
time  were  doled  out  by  this  court  an  attack  upon  the 
LoAver  Palatinate,  from  the  side  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, was  at  the  same  time  agreed  upon. 

During  these  attempts  to  draw  all  the  Roman  Catholic 
powers  into  the  League,  every  exertion  was  made  against 
the  counter-league  of  the  Protestants.  To  tliis  end  it 
was  important  "to  alarm  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the 
other  Evangelical  poAvers,  and  accordingly  the  Union 
were  diligent  in  propagating  a  rumor  that  the  preparations 
of  the  Le'ague  had  for^thcir  object  to  deprive  them  of  the 
ecclesiastical  foundations  they  had  secularized.  A  writ- 
ten assurance  to  the  contrary  calmed  the  fears  of  the 
Duke  of  Saxony,  whom  moreover  private  jealousy  of  the 
Palatine,  and  the  insinuations  of  his  chaplain,  who  was  in 
the  pay  of  Austria,  and  mortification  at  haying  been 
passed  over  by  the  Bohemians  in  the  election  to  the 
throne,  strongly  inchned  to  the  side  of  Austria.  Tlie 
fanaticism  of"  the  Lutherans  could  never  forgive^  the 
reformed  party  for  having  drawn,  as  they  expressed  it,  so 
many  fair  provinces  into  the  gulf  of  Calvinism,  and 
rejecting  the  Roman  Antichrist  only  to  make  way  for  an 
Helvetian  one. 

While  Ferdinand  used  every  effort  to  improve  the 
unfavorable  situation  of  his  affairs,  Frederick  Avas  daily 
injuring  his  good  cause.  By  his  close  and  questionable 
connection  with  the  Prince  of. Transylvania,  the  open  ally 
of   the   Porte,   he  gave  offence  to  weak  minds;  and   a 


80  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

general  rumor  accused  liim  of  furthering  his  own  ambition 
at  the  expense  of  Christendom,  and  arming  the  Turks 
against  Germany.  His  inconsiderate  zeal  for  the  Cal- 
vinistic  scheme  irritated  the  Lutherans  of  Bohemia,  his 
attacks  on  image-worship  incensed  the  Papists  of  this 
kingdom  against  him.  New  and  oppressive  imposts 
alienated  the  affections  of  all  his  subjects.  The  disap- 
pointed hopes  of  tlie  Bohemian  nobles  cooled  their  zeal ; 
the  absence  of  foreign  succors  abated  their  confidence. 
Instead  of  devotino-  himself  with  untirins;  energies  to  the 
affairs  of  his  kingdom,  Frederick  wasted  his  time  in 
amusements  ;  instead  of  filling  his  treasury  by  a  wise 
economy,  he  squandered  his  revenues  by  a  needless 
theatrical  pomp  and  a  misplaced  munificence.  With  a 
light-minded  carelessness,  he  did  but  gaze  at  himself  in 
his  new  dignity,  and  in  the  ill-timed  desire  to  enjoy  his 
crown,  he  forgot  the  more  pressing  duty  of  securing  it  on 
his  head. 

But  greatly  as  men  erred  in  their  opinion  of  him,  Fre- 
derick himself  had  not  less  miscalculated  his  foreign 
resources.  Most  of  the  members  of  the  Union  considered 
the  affairs  of  Bohemia  as  foreign  to  the  real  object  of 
their  confederacy;  others,  who  were  devoted  to  him, 
were  overawed  by  fear  of  the  Emperor,  Saxony  and 
Hesse  Darmstadt  had  already  been  gained  over  by  Fer- 
dinand ;  Lower  Austria,  on  which  side  a  powerful  diver- 
sion had  been  looked  for,  had  made  its  submission  to  the 
Emperor;  and  Bethlen  Gabor  had  concluded  a  truce  with 
him.  By  its  embassies  the  court  of  Vienna  liad  induced 
Denmark  to  remain  inactive,  and  to  occupy  Sweden  in  a 
war  with  the  Poles.  The  republic  of  Holland  had  enough 
to  do  to  defend  itself  against  the  arms  of  the  Spaniards; 
Venice  and  Saxony  remained  inactive ;  King  James  of 
England  was  overreaclied  by  tlie  artifice  of  Sjiiiin.  One 
friend  after  another  withdrew;  one  hope  vanished  after 
another  —  so  rapidly  in  a  few  months  was  everything 
changed. 

In  the  meantime  tlie  loaders  of  the  Union  assembled 
an  army;  the  Emperor  and  tlie  League  did  the  same. 
The  troops  of  the  latter  were  assembled  under  the  banners 
of  Maximilian  at  Donauwerth,  those  of  the  Union  at  Ulm, 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   AVAR.  81 

under  the  Margrave  of  Anspach.  The  decisive  moment 
seemed  at  length  to  have  arrived  wliich  was  to  end  these 
long  dissensions  by  a  vigorous  blow,  and  irrevocably  to  set- 
tle the  relation  of  tlie  two  churches  in  Germany.  Anxiously 
on  the  stretch  was  the  expectation  of  both  parties.  How 
great  then  was  their  astonishment  when  suddenly  the 
intelligence  of  peace  arrived,  and  both  armies  separated 
without  striking  a  blow  ! 

The  intervention  of  France  effected  this  peace,  which 
was  equally  acceptable  to  both  parties.  The  French 
cabinet,  no  longer  swayed  by  the  counsels  of  Henry  the 
Great,  and  whose  maxims  of  state  were  perhaps  not 
applicable  to  tlie  present  condition  of  that  kingdom,  was 
now  far  less  alarmed  at  the  preponderance  of  Austria 
than  of  tlie  increase  which  would  accrue  to  the  strength 
of  tlie  Calvinists  if  the  Palatine  house  should  be  able 
to  retain  the  throne  of  Bohemia.  Involved  at  the  time 
in  a  dangerous  conflict  with  its  own  Calvinistic  subjects, 
it  was  oflhe  utmost  importance  to  France  that  the  Prot- 
estant faction  in  Bohemia  should  be  suppressed  before 
the  Huguenots  could  co])y  their  dangerous  example.  In 
order  therefore  to  facilitate  the  Emperor's  operations 
airainst  the  Bohemians,  she  offered  her  mediation  to  the 
Union  and  the  League,  and  effected  this  unexpected 
treaty  of  which  tlie  main  article  was,  "  Tliat  the  Union 
should  abandon  all  interference  in  the  affairs  of  Bohemia, 
and  confine  the  aid  which  they  might  afford  to  Fi-ederick 
v.,  to  his  Palatine  territories."  To  this  disgraceful 
treaty,  the  Union  were  moved  by  the  firmness  of  Maxi- 
milian and  the  fear  of  being  pressed  at  once  by  the 
troops  of  the  League,  and  a  new  Imperial  army  which 
was  on  its  march  from  the  Netherlands. 

The  whole  force  of  Bavaria  and  the  League  was  now 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Emperor  to  be  employed  against 
the  Bohemians,  who  by  the  pacification  of  Ulm  A^ere 
abandoned  to  their  fate.  With  a  rapid  movement,  and 
before  a  rumor  of  the  proceedings  at  Ulm  could  reach 
there,  Maximilian  appeared  in  Upper  Austria,  when  the 
Estates,  surprised  and  unprepared  for  an  enemy,  purchased 
the  Emperor's  pardon  bv  an  immediate  and  uncondi- 
tional submission.     In  Lower  Austria  the  duke  formed  a 


82  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

junction  with  the  troops  from  the  Low  Countries,  under 
Eucquoi,  and  Avitliout  loss  of  time  the  united  Imperial 
and  Bavarian  forces,  amounting  to  fifty  thousand  men, 
entered  Bohemia.  AH  the  Bohemian  troops,  which  were 
dispersed  over  Lower  Austria  and  Moravia,  were  driven 
before  them  ;  every  town  which  attempted  resistance  was 
quickly  taken  by  storm  ;  others,  terrified  by  the  report  of 
tlie  punishment  inflicted  on  these,  voluntarily  opened  their 
gates ;  nothing  in  short  interrupted  the  impetuous  career 
of  Maximilian.  The  Bohemian  army,  commanded  by  the 
brave  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt,  retreated  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Prague ;  where,  under  the  walls  of  the  city, 
Maximilian  offered  him  battle. 

The  wretched  condition  in  which  he  hoped  to  surprise 
the  insurgents  justified  the  ra])idity  of  the  duke's  move- 
ments, and  secured  him  the  victory.  Frederick's  army 
did  not  amount  to  tliirty  thousand  men.  Eight  thousand 
of  these  were  furnished  by  the  Prince  of  Anhalt ;  ten 
tliousand  were  Hungarians,  whom  Bethlen  Gabor  had 
despatched  to  his  assistance.  An  inroad  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  upon  Lusatia  had  cut  off  all  succors  from  that 
country  and  from  Silesia ;  the  pacification  of  Austria  put 
an  end  to  all  his  expectations  from  that  quarter;  Bethlen 
Gabor,  his  most  powerful  ally,  remained  inactive  in  Tran- 
sylvania ;  tlie  Union  had  betrayed  his  cause  to  the 
Emperor.  Nothing  remained  to  him  but  his  Bohemians; 
and  they  were  without  good-will  to  his  cause,  and  without 
unity  and  courage.  The  Bohemian  magnates  were  indig- 
nant that  German  generals  sliould  be  put  over  their  heads ; 
Count  Mansfeld  remained  in  Pilsen,  at  a  distance  from 
the  camp,  to  avoid  the  mortification  of  serving  under 
Anhalt  and  Hohenlohe.  The  soldiers,  in  want  of  neces- 
saries, became  disjiirited  ;  and  the  little  discipline  that 
Avas  observed  gave  occasion  to  bitter  comjilaints  from  the 
peasantry.  It  was  in  vain  that  Frederick  made  his  ap- 
])earance  in  the  camp,  in  the  liope  of  reviving  the  courage 
of  the  soldiers  by  his  presence,  and  of  kindling  the  emu- 
lation of  the  nobles  by  his  example. 

The  Bohemians  had  begun  to  entrench  tliemselves  on 
the  White  ^lountain,  near  Prague,  when  they  were  at- 
tacked by  tlie  Imperial  and  Bavarian  armies,  on  the  8th 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  83 

November,  1620.  In  the  beginning  of  the  action  some 
advuntages  were  gained  by  the  cavah-y  of  the  Prince  of 
Anhalt ;  but  the  siii)erior  numbers  of  the  enemy  soon 
neutralized  them.  The  charge  of  the  Bavarians  and  Wal- 
loons was  irresistible.  The  Hungarian  cavalry  was  the 
first  to  retreat.  The  Boliemian  infantry  soon  followed  their 
example;  and  the  Germans  were  at  last  carried  along 
with  them  in  the  general  flight.  Ten  cannons,  composing 
the  whole  of  Frederick's  artillery,  were  taken  by  the 
enemy ;  four  thousand  Bohemians  fell  in  the  flight  and  on 
the  field;  while  of  the  Imperialists  and  soldiers  of  the 
League  only  a  few  hundred  were  killed.  In  less  than  an 
hour  this  decisive  action  was  over. 

Frederick  was  seated  at  table  in  Prague  while  his 
army  was  thus  cut  to  pieces.  It  is  probable  that  he  had 
not  expected  the  attack  on  this  day,  since  he  had  ordered 
an  entertainment  for  it.  A  messenger  summoned  him 
from  table  to  show  him  from  the  walls  the  whole  frightful 
scene.  He  requested  a  cessation  of  hostilities  for  twenty- 
four  hours  for  deliberation ;  but  eight  was  all  the  Duke 
of  Bavaria  would  allow  him.  Frederick  availed  him- 
self of  these  to  fly  by  night  from  the  capital,  with  his 
wife  and  the  chief  officers  of  his  army.  This  flight  was  so 
hurried  that  the  Prince  of  Anhalt  left  behind  him  his  most 
private  papers  and  Frederick  his  crown.  "  I  know  now 
what  I  am,"  said  this  unfortunate  prince  to  those  who 
endeavored  to  comfort  him ;  "  there  are  virtues  which 
misfortune  only  can  teach  us,  and  it  is  in  adversity  alone 
that  princes  learn  to  know  themselves." 

Prague  >vas  not  irretrievably  lost  when  Frederick's 
pusillanimity  abandoned  it.  The  light  troops  of  Mansfeld 
were  stdl  in  Pilsen,  and  were  not  engaged  in  the  action. 
Bethlen  Gabor  might  at  any  moment  have  assumed  an 
offensive  attitude,  and  drawn  off  tlie  Em])eror's  army  to 
the  Hungarian  frontier.  The  defeated  Bohemians  might 
rally.  Sickness,  famine,  and  the  inclement  weather  might 
wear  out  the  enemy;  but  all  these  hopes  disappeared 
before  the  immediate  alarm.  Frederick  dreaded  the 
fickleness  of  the  Bohemians,  who  might  j^robably  yield  to 
the  temptation  to  purchase,  by  the  surrender  of  his  person, 
the  pardon  of  the  Emperor. 


84  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

Thurn,  and  those  of  tliis  party  who  were  in  the  same 
condemnation  with  him,  found  it  e(}ually  inexpedient  to 
await  their  destiny  within  the  walls  of  Prague.  They 
retired  towards  Moravia,  with  a  view  of  seeking  refuge 
in  Transylvania,  Frederick  tied  to  Breslau,  where,  how- 
ever, he  only  remained  a  short  time.  He  removed  from 
thence  to  the  court  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and 
finally  took  shelter  in  Holland. 

The  battle  of  Prague  had  decided  the  fate  of  Bohemia. 
Prague  surrendered  the  next  day  to  the  victors  ;  the 
other  towns  followed  the  example  of  the  capital.  The 
Estates  did  homage  without  conditions,  and  the  same  was 
done  by  those  of  Silesia  and  Moravia.  The  Emperor 
allowed  three  months  to  elapse  before  instituting  any 
inquiry  into  the  past.  Reassured  by  this  apparent  clem- 
ency, many  who  at  first  had  fled  in  terror  appeared  again 
in  the  capital.  All  at  once,  however,  the  storm  burst 
forth  ;  forty-eight  of  the  most  active  among  the  insurgents 
were  arrested  on  the  same  day  and  hour,  and  tried  by  an 
extraordinary  commission,  composed  of  native  Bohemians 
and  Austrians.  Of  these,  twenty-seven,  and  of  the  com- 
mon people  an  immense  number,  expired  on  the  scaffold. 
The  absenting  offenders  were  summoned  to  appear  to 
their  trial,  and,  failing  to  do  so,  condemned  to  death  as 
traitors  and  offenders""  against  his  Catholic  Majesty,  their 
estates  confiscated,  and  their  names  affixed  to  the  gallows. 
The  property  also  of  the  rebels  who  had  fallen  in  the  field 
was  seized.  This  tyranny  might  have  been  borne,  as  it 
affected  individuals  only,  and  while  the  ruin  of  one  en- 
riched another ;  but  more  intolerable  was  the  oppression 
which  extended  to  the  whole  kingdom  Avithout  exception. 
All  the  Protestant  preachers  were  banished  from  the 
country;  the  Bohemians  first,  and  afterwards  those  of 
Germany.  The  Letter  of  Majesty  Ferdinand  tore  with 
his  own  hand  and  burnt' the  seal.  Seven  years  after  tlie 
battle  of  Prague  the  toleration  of  the  Protestant  religion 
within  the  kingdom  was  entirely  revoked.  But  what- 
ever violence  the  Eni])eror  allowed  liimself  against  the 
religious  privileges  of  Ids  subjects,  he  carefully  abstained 
from  ijiterfering  with  their  jiolitical  constitution ;  and 
Avhile  he  deprived  them  of   the  liberty  of   thought,   he 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  85 

magnanimously  left  them  the  prerogative  of  taxing  them- 
selves. 

The  victory  of  the  White  Mountain  put  Ferdinand  in 
possession  of  all  his  dominions.  It  even  invested  liim 
with  greater  authority  over  them  than  his  predecessors 
enjoyed,  since  their  allegiance  had  been  unconditionally 
pledged  to  him,  and  no  Letter  of  Majesty  now  existed  to 
limit  his  sovereignty.  All  his  wishes  M'ere  now  gratilied 
to  a  degree  surpassing  his  most  sanguine  expectations. 

It  was  noAv  in  his  jjower  to  dismiss  liis  allies  and  dis- 
band his  army.  If  he  was  just,  there  was  an  end  of  the 
war  —  if  he  was  both  magnanimous  and  just,  punishment 
Avas  also  at  an  end.  The  fate  of  C4ermany  was  in  his 
hands ;  the  happiness  and  misery  of  millions  depended  on 
the  resolution  he  should  take.  Never  was  so  great  a 
decision  resting  on  a  single  mind  ;  never  did  the  blindness 
of  one  man  produce  so  much  ruin. 


BOOK  II. 


The  resolution  which  Ferdinand  now  adopted  gave  to 
the  war  a  new  direction,  a  new  scene,  and  new  actors. 
From  a  rebellion  in  Bohemia,  and  the  chastisement  of 
rebels,  a  war  extended  first  to  Germany,  and  afterwards 
to  Europe.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  take  a  general 
survej'  of  the  state  of  affairs  both  in  Germany  and  the 
rest  of  Europe. 

Unequally  as  the  territory  of  Germany  and  the  privi- 
leges of  its  members  were  divided  among  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants,  neither  party  could  liope 
to  maintain  itself  against  the  encroachments  of  its  adver- 
sary otherwise  than  by  a  prudent  use  of  its  peculiar  ad- 
vantages, and  by  a  politic  union  among  themselves.  If 
the  Roman  Catholics  were  the  more  numerous  party,  and 
more  favored  by  the  constitution  of  the  Empire,  the  Prot- 
estants, on  the  other  hand,  had  tlie  advantage  of  posses- 
sing a  more  compact  and   po])uIous  line  of   territories, 


8G  THE    THIRTY    YEARS"    WAR. 

valiant  princes,  a  warlike  nobility,  numerous  armies, 
flourishing  free  towns,  the  command  of  the  sea,  and,  even 
at  the  worst,  certainty  of  support  from  Koman  Catholic 
states.  If  the  Catholics  could  arm  Spain  and  Italy  in 
their  favor,  the  republics  of  Venice,  Hohand,  and  Eng- 
land opened  their  treasures  to  the  Protestants,  while  the 
states  of  the  North  and  the  formidable  power  of  Turkey 
stood  ready  to  afford  them  prompt  assistance.  Branden- 
burg, Saxony,  and  the  Palatinate  opposed  three  Protest- 
ant to  three  Ecclesiastical  votes  in  the  Electoral  College  ; 
while  to  the  Elector  of  Bohemia,  as  to  the  Archduke  of 
Austria,  the  possession  of  the  Imperial  dignity  was  an 
important  check  if  the  Protestants  properly  availed 
themselves  of  it.  The  sword  of  the  Union  might  keep 
within  its  sheath  the  sword  of  the  League;  or,  if  matters 
actually  came  to  a  wai*,  might  make  the  issue  of  it  doubt- 
ful. But,  unfortunately,  private  interests  dissolved  tlie 
band  of  union  which  should  have  held  together  the 
Protestant  members  of  the  empire.  This  critical  con- 
juncture found  none  but  second-rate  actors  on  the  political 
stage,  and  the  decisive  moment  was  neglected  because  the 
courageous  were  deficient  in  power,  and  the  powerful  in 
sagacity,  courage,  and  resolution. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
German  Protestants  by  the  services  of  his  ancestor  Mau- 
rice, by  the  extent  of  his  territories,  and  by  the  influence  of 
his  electoral  vote.  Upon  the  resolution  he  might  adopt 
the  fate  of  the  contending  parties  seemed  to  depend  ;  and 
John  George  was  not  insensible  to  the  advantages  which 
this  important  situation  procured  him.  Equally  valuable 
as  an  ally,  both  to  the  Emperor  and  to  the  Protestant 
Union,  he  cautiously  avoided  committing  himself  to  either 
party;  neither  trusting  himself  by  any  irrevocable  declar- 
ation entirely  to  the  gratitude  of  the  Emperor,  nor 
renouncing  the  advantages  which  were  to  be  gained  from 
his  fears.  Uninfected  by  the  contagion  of  religious  and 
romantic  enthusiasm  which  hurried  sovereign  after  sov- 
ereign to  risk  both  crown  and  life  on  the  hazard  of  war, 
John  George  aspired  to  the  more  solid  renown  of  improv- 
inu'  and  a<lvaru'ing  the  interests  of  his  territoi'ies.  His 
contemporaries  accused  liim  of  forsaking  the  I'rotestant 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  87 

cause  in  the  very  midst  of  the  storm  ;  of  preferring  the 
ago-randizenient  of  his  house  to  tlie  emancipation  of  his 
country ;  of  exposing  the  whole  I£vangelical  or  Lutlieran 
churcli'  of  Ge,rniany  to  ruin  ratlier  than  raise  an  arm  in 
defence  of  the  Reformed  or  Calvinists;  of  injuring  the 
common  cause  by  his  suspicious  friendship  more  seriously 
than  the  open  enmity  of  its  avowed  opponents.  But  it 
would  have  been  well  if  his  accusers  had  imitated  the 
wise  policy  of  the  Elector.  If,  despite  of  the  prudent 
policy,  the  Saxons,  like  all  others,  groaned  at  the  cruelties 
which  marked  the  Emperor's  progress ;  if  all  Germany 
was  a  witness  how  Eerdinand  deceived  his  confederates 
and  trilled  with  his  engagements;  if  even  the  Elector 
himself  at  last  perceived  this  —  the  more  shame  to  the 
Emperor  who  could  so  basely  betray  such  implicit  confi- 
dence. 

If  an  excessive  reliance  on  the  Emperor,  and  the  hope 
of  enlarging  his  territories,  tied  the  hands  of  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  the  weak  George  William,  Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg, MMs  still  more  shamefully  fettered  by  fear  of 
Austria  and  of  the  loss  of  his  dominions.  What  was 
made  a  reproach  against  these  princes  would  have  pre- 
served to  the  Elector  Palatine  his  fame  and  his  kingdom.^ 
A  rash  confidence  in  his  untried  strength,  the  intluence  of 
French  counsels,  and  the  temptation  of  a  crown  had 
seduced  that  unfortunate  prince  into  an  enter])rise  for 
Avhich  he  had  neither  adequate  genius  nor  political  capac- 
ity. The  partition  of  his  territories  an^ong  discordant 
princes  enfeebled  the  Palatinate,  which,  united,  might 
have  made  a  longer  resistance. 

This  partition  of  territory  was  equally  injurious  to  the 
House  of  Hesse,  in  which,  between  Darmstadt  and  Cassel, 
religious  dissensions  had  occasioned  a  fatal  division.  The 
line'^of  Darmstadt,  adhering  to  tlie  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, had  placed  itself  under  the  Emperor's  protection, 
who  favored  it  at  the  expense  of  the  Calvinists  of  Cassel. 
While  his  religious  confederates  were  shedding  their 
blood  for  their  faith  and  their  liberties,  the  Landgrave  of 
Darmstadt  was  won  over  by  the  Emperor's  gold.  But 
William  of  Cassel,  every  way  worthy  of  his  ancestor,  who, 
a  century  before,  had  defended  the  freedom  of  Germany 


88  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

against  the  formidable  Charles  V.,  espoused  the  cause  of 
danger  and  of  honor.  Superior  to  tliat  pusillanimity 
which  made  far  more  powerful  princes  bow  before  Ferdi- 
nand's might,  the  Landgrave  William  was  th.e  first  to  join 
the  hero  of  Sweden,  and  set  an  example  to  the  princes  of 
Germany,  which  all  had  hesitated  to  begin.  The  boldness 
of  his  resolve  was  equalled  by  the  steadfastness  of  his 
perseverance  and  the  valor  of  his  exploits.  He  placed 
himself  with  unshrinking  resolution  before  his  bleeding 
country,  and  boldly  confronted  the  fearful  enemy,  whose 
hands  were  still  reekino;  from  the  carnage  of  Magdeburg. 

The  Landgrave  William  deserves  to  descend  to  immor- 
tality with  tlie  heroic  race  of  Ernest.  Thy  day  of  ven- 
geance Avas  long  delayed,  unfortunate  John  Frederick! 
Noble  !  never-to-be-forgotten  prince  !  Slowly  but  brightly 
it  broke.  Thy  times  returned,  and  thy  heroic  spii-it  de- 
scended on  thy  grandson.  An  intrepid  race  of  ])rinces 
issues  from  the  Tliui-ingian  forests  to  shame,  by  immortal 
deeds,  the  unjust  sentence  which  robbed  thee  of  the  elec- 
toral crown  —  to  avenge  thy  offended  shade  by  heaps  of 
bloody  sacrifice.  The  sentence  of  the  conqueror  could 
deprive  thee  of  thy  territories,  but  not  that  spirit  of 
patriotism  which  staked  them,  nor  that  chivalrous  courage 
which,  a  century  afterwards,  was  destined  to  shake  tlie 
throne  of  his  descendant.  Thy  vengeance  and  that  of 
Germany  Avhetted  the  sacred  sword,  and  one  heroic  hand 
after  the  other  wielded  the  irresistible  steel.  As  men 
they  achieved  what  as  sovereigns  they  dared  not  under- 
take ;  they  met  in  a  glorious  cause  as  the  valiant  soldiers 
of  liberty.  Too  weak  in  territory  to  attack  the  enemy 
with  their  own  forces,  they  directed  foreign  artillery 
agninst  them,  and  led  foreign  banners  to  victory. 

The  liberties  of  Germany,  abandoned  by  the  more 
])Owerful  states,  who,  however,  enjoyed  most  of  the  pros- 
])erity  accruing  from  them,  were  defended  by  a  few 
]»rinces  for  whom  they  were  almost  without  value.  The 
possession  of  territories  and  dignities  deadened  courage; 
the  want  of  both  made  heroes.  While  Saxony,  IJranden- 
burg,  and  the  rest  drew  back  in  terror,  Anhalt,  Mansfeld, 
the  Prince  of  Weimar  and  others  were  shedding  their 
blood  in  the  field.     The  Dukes  of  Pomerania,  Mecklen- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  89 

bui'g,  Luneburg,  and  Wirtemberg,  and  the  free  cities  of 
TjpiJer  Germany,  to  whom  the  name  of  Emperor  was  of 
course  a  formidable  one,  anxiously  avoided  a  contest  with 
such  an  opponent,  and  crouched  murmuring  beneath  his 
miglity  arm. 

Austria  and  Roman  Catholic  Germany  possessed  in 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria  a  champion  as  prudent  as  he  Avas 
powerful.  Adhering  throughout  the  war  to  one  fixed 
plan,  never  divided  between  his  religion  and  his  political 
interests ;  not  the  slavish  dependent  of  Austria,  who  was 
laboring  for  his  advancement,  and  trembled  before  her 
powerful  protector,  Maximilian  earned  the  territories  and 
dignities  that  rewarded  his  exertions.  The  other  Roman 
Catholic  states,  which  were  chiefly  ecclesiastical,  too  un- 
warlike  to  resist  the  multitudes  whom  the  prosperity  of 
their  territories  allured,  became  the  victims  of  the  war 
one  after  another,  and  were  contented  to  persecute  in  the 
cabinet  and  in  the  pulpit  the  enemy  whom  they  could  not 
openly  oppose  in  the  field.  All  of  them,  slaves  either  to 
Austria  or  Bavaria,  sunk  into  insignificance  by  the  side 
of  Maximilian ;  in  his  hand  alone  their  united  power 
could  be  rendered  available. 

The  formidable  monarchy  which  Charles  V.  and  his 
son  had  unnaturally  constructed  of  the  Netherlands, 
Milan,  and  the  two  Sicilies,  and  their  distant  possessions 
in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  was  under  Philip  III.  and 
Philip  IV.  fast  verging  to  decay.  Swollen  to  a  sudden 
greatness  by  unfruitful  gold,  this  power  was  now  sinking 
under  a  visible  decline,  neglecting,  as  it  did,  agriculture, 
the  natural  support  of  states.  The  conquests  in  the  West 
Indies  had  reduced  Spain  itself  to  poverty,  while  they 
enriched  the  markets  of  Europe ;  the  bankers  of  Antwerp, 
Venice,  and  Genoa  were  making  profit  on  the  gold  which 
was  still  buried  in  the  mines  of  Peru.  For  the  sake  of 
India  Spain  had  been  depopulated,  while  the  treasures 
drawn  from  thence  were  wasted  in  the  reconquest  of 
Holland,  in  the  chimerical  project  of  changing  the  succes- 
sion to  the  crown  of  France,  and  in  an  unfortunate  attack 
upon  England.  But  the  pride  of  this  court  had  survived 
its  greatness,  as  the  hate  of  its  enemies  had  outlived  its 
power.      Distrust   of   the   Protestants  suggested  to  the 


90  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

ministry  of  Philip  III.  the  dangerous  policy  of  his  father ; 
and  the  reliance  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Germany  on 
Spanish  assistance  was  as  firm  as  their  belief  in  the 
wonder-working  bones  of  the  martyrs.  External  splen- 
dor concealed  the  inward  Avounds  at  which  the  life-blood 
of  this  monarchy  was  oozing ;  and  the  belief  of  its  strength 
survived,  because  it  still  maintained  the  lofty  tone  of  its 
golden  days.  Slaves  in  their  palaces,  and  strangers  even 
upon  their  own  thrones,  the  Spanish  nominal  kings  still 
gave  laws  to  their  German  relations ;  though  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  the  support  they  afforded  was  worth  the  de- 
pendence by  which  the  emperors  purchased  it.  The  fate 
of  Europe  was  decided  behind  the  Pyrenees  by  ignorant 
monks  or  vindictive  favorites.  Yet,  even  in  its  debase- 
ment, a  power  must  always  be  formidable  which  yields  to 
none  in  extent ;  Avhich,  from  custom,  if  not  from  the  stead- 
fastness of  its  views,  adhered  faithfully  to  one  system  of 
l^olicy ;  which  possessed  Avell-disciplined  armies  and  con- 
summate generals;  which,  where  the  sword  failed,  did  not 
scruple  to  employ  the  dagger ;  and  converted  even  its  am- 
bassadors into  incendiaries  and  assassins.  What  it  had  lost 
in  three  quarters  of  the  globe  it  now  sought  to  regahi  to 
the  eastward,  and  all  Europe  was  at  its  mercy,  if  it  could 
succeed  in  its  long-cherished  design  of  uniting  with  the 
hereditary  dominions  of  Austria  all  that  lay  between  the 
Alps  and  the  Adriatic. 

To  the  great  alarm  of  the  native  states  this  formidable 
power  had  gained  a  footing  in  Italy,  where  its  continual 
encroachments  made  the  neighboring  sovereigns  to  trem- 
ble for  their  own  possessions.  The  Pope  himself  Avas  in 
the  most  dangerous  situation,  —  hemmed  in  on  both  sides 
by  the  Spanish  Viceroys  of  Naples  on  the  one  side,  and 
that  of  Milan  upon  the  other.  Venice  was  confined  be- 
tween the  Austrian  Tyrol  and  the  Spanish  territories  in 
Milan.  Savoy  was  surrounded  by  the  latter  and  France. 
Hence  the  wavering  and  equivocal  policy  Avhich,  from 
the  time  of  Charles  V.,  had  been  pursued  by  the  Italian 
states.  The  double  character  which  pertained  to  the 
Popes  made  them  ])crpetually  vacillate  between  two  con- 
tradictory systems  of  policy.  If  the  successors  of  St. 
Peter  found  in  the  Spanish  princes  their  most  obedient 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  91 

disciples,  and  the  most  steadfast  supporters  of  the  Papal 
See,  yet  the  princes  of  the  states  of  the  Church  liad  in 
these  monarchs  their  most  dangerous  neio-hbors  and  most 
formidable  opponents.  If,  in  the  one  capacity,  their 
dearest  wish  was  the  destruction  of  the  Protestants,  and 
the  triumph  of  Austria  in  the  other,  they  had  reason  to 
bless  the  arms  of  the  Protestants  which  disabled  a  dan- 
gerous enemy.  The  one  or  the  other  sentiment  prevailed, 
according  as  the  love  of  temporal  dominion  or  zeal  for 
spiritual  supremacy  predominated  in  the  mind  of  the 
Pope.  But  the  policy  of  Rome  was,  on  the  whole,  directed 
to  immediate  dangers  ;  and  it  is  well  known  how  far  more 
powerful  is  the  apprehension  of  losing  a  present  good 
than  anxiety  to  recover  a  long  lost  possession.  And  thus 
it  becomes  intelligible  how  the  Pope  should  first  combine 
with  Austria  for  the  destruction  of  heresy,  and  then  con- 
spire with  these  very  heretics  for  the  destruction  of 
Austria.  Strangely  blended  are  the  threads  of  human 
affairs !  What  would  have  become  of  the  Reformation 
and  of  the  liberties  of  Germany  if  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
and  the  Prince  of  Rome  had  had  but  one  interest? 

France  had  lost  with  its  great  Henry  all  its  importance 
and  all  its  weight  in  the  political  balance  of  Europe.  A 
turbulent  minority  had  destroyed  all  the  benefits  of  the 
able  administration  of  Henry.  Incapable  ministers,  the 
creatures  of  court  intrigue,  squandered  in  a  few  years  the 
treasures  which  Sully's  economy  and  Henry's  frugality  had 
amassed.  Scarce  able  to  maintain  their  ground  against 
internal  factions,  they  were  compelled  to  resign  to  other 
hands  the  helm  of  European  affairs.  The  same  civil  war 
which  armed  Germany  against  itself  excited  a  similar 
commotion  in  France  ;  and  Louis  XIII.  attained  majority 
only  to  wage  a  war  with  his  own  mother  and  his  Prot- 
estant subjects.  This  party,  which  had  been  kept  quiet  by 
Henry's  enlightened  policy,  now  seized  the  opportunity 
to  take  up  arms,  and  under  the  command  of  some  adven- 
turous leaders,  began  to  form  themselves  into  a  party 
within  the  state,  and  to  fix  on  the  strong  and  powerful 
town  of  Rochelle  as  the  capital  of  their  intended  kingdom. 
Too  little  of  a  statesman  to  suppress  by  a  prudent  toler- 
ation  this  civil   commotion   in   its  birth,  and   too   little 


92  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

master  of  the  resources  of  his  kingdom  to  direct  them 
with  energy,  Louis  XIII.  was  reduced  to  the  degradation 
of  purchasing  the  submission  of  the  rebels  by  large  suras 
of  money.  Though  policy  might  incline  him  in  one  point 
of  view  to  assist  the  Bohemian  insurgents  against  Austria, 
the  son  of  Henry  IV.  was  now  compelled  to  be  an  inactive 
spectator  of  their  destruction,  happy  enough  if  the  Cal- 
vinists  in  his  own  dominions  did  not  unseasonably  bethink 
them  of  tlieir  confederates  beyond  the  Rhine.  A  great 
mind  at  the  helm  of  state  would  have  reduced  the  Prot- 
estants in  France  to  obedience,  while  it  employed  them 
to  fight  for  the  independence  of  their  German  brethren. 
But  Henry  IV.  was  no  more,  and  Richelieu  had  not  yet 
revived  his  system  of  policy. 

While  the  glory  of  France  was  thus  upon  the  wane,  the 
emancipated  republic  of  Holland  was  completing  the 
fabric  of  its  greatness.  The  enthusiastic  coui'age  had  not 
yet  died  away  which,  enkindled  by  the  House  of  Orange, 
had  converted  this  mercantile  people  into  a  nation  of 
heroes,  and  had  enabled  them  to  maintain  their  independ- 
ence in  a  bloody  war  against  the  Spanish  monarchy. 
Aware  how  much  they  owed  their  own  liberty  to  foreign 
support,  these  republicans  were  ready  to  assist  their  Ger- 
man brethren  in  a  similar  cause,  and  the  more  so  as  both 
were  opposed  to  the  same  enemy,  and  the  liberty  of  Ger- 
many was  the  best  warrant  for  that  of  Holland.  But  a 
republic  which  had  still  to  battle  for  its  very  existence, 
which,  with  all  its  Avonderful  exertions,  was  scarce  a 
match  for  the  formidable  enemy  within  its  own  territories, 
could  not  be  expected  to  withdraw  its  troops  from  the 
necessary  work  of  self-defence  to  employ  them  with  a 
magnanimous  policy  in  protecting  foreign  states. 

England,  too,  though  now  united  with  Scotland,  no 
longer  possessed,  under  the  weak  James,  that  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  Europe  which  the  governing  mind  of 
Elizabeth  had  procured  for  it.  Convinced  that  the  wel- 
fare of  her  dominions  depended  on  the  security  of  the 
Protestants,  this  politic  princess  had  never  swerved  from 
the  principle  of  promoting  every  enterprise  which  had 
for  its  object  the  diminution  of  the  Austrian  power. 
Her  successor  was  no  less  devoid  of  capacity  to  corapre- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  93 

hend,  than  of  vigor  to  execute,  her  views.  While  the 
economical  Elizabeth  spared  not  lier  treasures  to  support 
the  Flemings  against  Spain,  and  Henry  IV.  against  the 
League,  James  abandoned  his  daughter,  his  son-in-law, 
and'liis  grandchild  to  the  fury  of  their  enemies.  While 
he  exhausted  his  learning  to  establish  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  he  allowed  his  own  dignity  to  sink  into  the  dust; 
while  lie  exerted  his  rhetoric  to  prove  the  absolute 
authority  of  kings,  he  reminded  the  people  of  theirs  ;  and 
by  a  useless  profusion,  sacrificed  the  chief  of  his  sover- 
eign rights  —  that  of  dispensing  with  his  parliament,  and 
thus  depriving  liberty  of  its  organ.  An  innate  horror  at 
the  sight  of  a  naked  sword  averted  him  from  the  most 
just  of  wars;  while  his  favorite  Buckingham  practised 
on  his  weakness,  and  his  own  complacent  vanity  ren- 
dered him  an  easy  dupe  of  Spanish  artifice.  While  his 
son-in-law  was  ruined,  and  the  inheritance  of  his  grand- 
son given  to  others,  this  weak  prince  was  imbibing,  with 
satisfaction,  the  incense  which  was  offered  to  him  by 
Austria  and  Spain.  To  divert  his  attention  from  the 
German  war,  he  was  amused  with  the  proposal  of  a 
Spanish  marriage  for  his  son,  and  the  ridiculous  parent 
encouraged  the  romantic  youth  in  the  foolish  project  of 
paying  his  addresses  in  person  to  the  Spanish  princess. 
But  his  son  lost  his  bride,  as  his  son-in-law  lost  the  crown 
of  Bohemia  and  the  Palatine  Electorate  ;  and  death  alone 
saved  him  from  the  danger  of  closing  his  pacific  reign  by 
a  war  at  home,  which  he  never  had  courage  to  maintain, 
even  at  a  distance. 

The  domestic  disturbances  which  his  misgovernment 
had  gradually  excited  burst  forth  under  his  unfortunate 
son,  and  forced  him,  after  some  unimportant  attempts,  to 
renounce  all  further  participation  in  the  German  war,  in 
order  to  stem  within  his  own  kingdom  the  rage  of 
faction. 

Two  illustrious  monarchs,  far  unequal  in  personal 
reputation,  but  equal  in  power  and  desire  of  fame,  made 
the  North  at  this  time  to  be  respected.  Under  the  long 
and  active  reign  of  Christian  IV.,  Denmark  had  risen 
into  importance.  The  personal  qualifications  of  this 
prince,    an    excellent    navy,   a  formidable  army,  well- 


94  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

ordered  finances,  and  prudent  alliances,  had  combined  to 
give  her  prosperity  at  home  and  influence  abroad.  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa  had  rescued  Sweden  from  vassalage,  reformed 
it  by  wise  laws,  and  had  introduced,  for  the  first  time, 
this  newly-organized  state  into  the  field  of  European 
politics.  What  this  great  prince  had  merely  sketched 
in  rude  outline  was  filled  up  by  Gustavus  Adolphus,  his 
still  greater  grandson. 

These  two  kingdoms,  once  unnaturally  united  and 
enfeebled  by  their  union,  had  been  violently  separated  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  and  this  separation  was  the 
epoch  of  their  jirosperity.  Injurious  as  this  compulsory 
union  had  proved  to  both  kingdoms,  equally  necessary  to 
each  apart  were  neighborly  friendship  and  harmony. 
On  both  the  evangelical  church  leaned ;  both  had  the 
same  seas  to  protect  —  a  common  interest  ought  to  unite 
them  against  the  same  enemy.  But  the  hatred  which 
had  dissolved  the  union  of  these  monarchies  continued 
long  after  their  separation  to  divide  the  two  nations. 
The  Danish  kings  could  not  abandon  their  pretensions  to 
the  Swedish  crown,  nor  the  Swedes  banish  the  remem- 
brance of  Danish  oppression.  The  contiguous  boundaries 
of  the  two  kingdoms  constantly  furnished  materials  for 
interaational  quarrels,  while  the  watchful  jealousy  of 
both  kings,  and  the  unavoidable  collision  of  their  com- 
mercial interests  in  the  North  Seas,  were  inexhaustible 
sources  of  dispute. 

Among  the  means  of  which  Gustavus  Vasa,  the  founder 
of  the  Swedish  monarchy,  availed  himself  to  strengthen 
his  new  edifice,  the  Reformation  had  been  one  of  the 
principal.  A  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom  excluded 
the  adherents  of  popery  from  all  ofiices  of  the  state,  and 
prohibited  every  future  sovereign  of  Sweden  from  alter- 
ing the  religioxis  constitution  of  the  kingdom.  But  the 
second  son  and  second  successor  of  Gustavus  had  re- 
lapsed into  popery,  and  his  son  Sigismund,  also  King  of 
Poland,  had  been  guilty  of  measures  which  menaced 
both  the  constitution  and  the  established  church.  Headed 
by  Charles,  Duke  of  Sudermania,  the  third  son  of  Gus- 
tavus, the  Estates  made  a  courageous  resistance,  which 
terminated,  at  last,  in  an  open  civil  war  between  the 


THE   THIRTY  YEAKS'   WAR.  95 

uncle  and  nephew,  and  between  the  King  and  the  people. 
Duke  Charles,  administrator  of  the  kingrdoru  diirin2:  the 
absence  of  the  king,  had  availed  himself  of  Sigisniund's 
long  residence  in  Poland,  and  the  just  displeasure  of  the 
states,  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  nation,  and  grad- 
ually to  prepare  his  way  to  the  throne.  His  views  were 
not  a  little  forwarded  by  Sigisniund's  imprudence.  A 
general  Diet  ventured  to  abolish,  in  favor  of  the  Pro- 
tector, the  rule  of  primogeniture  which  Gustavus  had 
established  in  tlie  succession,  and  placed  the  Duke  of 
Sudermania  on  the  throne,  from  which  Sigismund,  with 
his  whole  posterity,  were  solemnly  excluded.  The  son 
of  the  new  king  (who  reigned  under  the  name  of  Charles 
IX.)  was  Gustavus  Adolphus,  whom,  as  the  son  of  a 
usurper,  the  adherents  of  Sigismund  refused  to  recog- 
nize. But  if  the  obligations  between  monarchy  and 
subjects  are  reciprocal,  and  states  are  not  to  be  trans- 
mitted, like  a  lifeless  heirloom,  from  hand  to  hand,  a 
nation  acting  with  unanimity  must  have  the  power  of 
renouncing  their  alles^iance  to  a  sovereign  who  has 
violated  his  obligations  to  them,  and  of  filling  his  place 
by  a  worthier  object. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  not  completed  his  seventeenth 
year  when  the  Swedish  throne  became  vacant  by  the 
death  of  his  father.  But  the  early  maturity  of  his  genius 
enabled  the  Estates  to  abridge  in  his  favor  the  legal 
period  of  minority.  With  a  glorious  conquest  over  him- 
self he  commenced  a  reign  which  was  to  ha\^e  victory  for 
its  constant  attendant,  a  career  which  was  to  begin  and 
end  in  success.  The  young  Countess  of  Brahe,  the 
daughter  of  a  subject,  had  gained  his  early  affections, 
and  he  had  resolved  to  share  with  her  the  Swedish  throne. 
But,  constrained  by  time  and  circumstances,  he  made  his 
attachment  yield  to  the  higher  duties  of  a  king,  and 
heroism  again  took  exclusive  possession  of  a  heart  which 
was  not  destined  by  nature  to  confine  itself  within  the 
limits  of  quiet  domestic  happiness. 

Christian  IV.  of  Denmark,  who  had  ascended  the 
throne  before  the  birth  of  Gustavus,  in  an  inroad  upon 
Sweden,  had  gained  some  considerable  advantages  over 
the  father  of  that  hero.     Gustavus  Adolphus  hastened  to 


96  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

put  an  end  to  this  destructive  war,  and  by  prudent 
sacrifices  obtained  a  peace  in  order  to  turn  his  arras 
against  the  Czar  of  Muscovy.  The  questionable  fame  of 
a  conqueror  never  tempted  him  to  spend  the  blood  of  his 
subjects  in  unjust  wars;  but  he  never  shrunk  from  a  just 
one.  His  arras  were  successful  against  Russia,  and 
Sweden  was  augmented  by  several  imj^ortant  provinces 
on  the  east. 

In  the  meantime,  Sigismund  of  Poland  retained  against 
the  son  the  same  sentiments  of  hostility  wliich  the  fatlier 
liad  provoked,  and  left  no  artifice  untried  to  shake  the 
allegiance  of  his  subjects,  to  cool  the  ardor  of  his  friends, 
and  to  embitter  his  enemies.  Neither  the  great  qualities 
of  his  rival,  nor  the  repeated  proofs  of  devotion  which 
Sweden  gave  to  her  loved  monarch,  could  extinguish  in 
this  infatuated  prince  the  foolish  hoj^e  of  regaining  his 
lost  throne.  All  Gustavus'  overtures  Avere  haughtily 
rejected.  Unwillingly  was  this  really  peaceful  king 
involved  in  a  tedious  war  with  Poland,  in  which  the 
whole  of  Livonia  and  Polish  Prussia  were  successively 
conquered.  Though  constantly  victoi-ious,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  always  the  first  to  hold  out  the  hand  of 
peace. 

This  contest  between  Sweden  and  Poland  falls  some- 
where about  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in 
Germany,  with  which  it  is  in  some  measure  connected. 
It  was  enough  that  Sigismund,  himself  a  Roman  Catholic, 
was  disputing  the  Swedish  crown  with  a  Protestant 
prince,  to  assure  hira  the  active  support  of  Spain  and 
Austria ;  while  a  double  relationship  to  the  Eraperor 
gave  him  a  still  stronger  claim  to  his  protection.  It  was 
his  reliance  on  this  powerful  assistance  that  chiefly 
encouraged  the  King  of  Poland  to  continue  the  war, 
which  had  hitherto  turned  out  so  unfavorably  for  him, 
and  the  courts  of  Madrid  and  Vienna  failed  not  to 
encourage  hira  by  high-sounding  promises.  While  Sigis- 
mund lost  one  place  after  another  in  Livonia,  Courland, 
and  Prussia,  he  saw  his  ally  in  Germany  advancing  from 
conquest  after  conquest  to  unlimited  power.  No  wonder 
then  if  liis  aversion  to  peace  kept  pace  with  his  losses. 
The  vehemence  with  wliich  he  nourished  his  chimerical 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  97 

hopes  blinded  him  to  the  artful  policy  of  his  confederates, 
who  at  his  expense  were  keeping  the  Swedish  hero 
employed,  in  order  to  overturn,  without  opposition,  the 
liberties  of  Germany,  and  then  to  seize  on  the  exhausted 
North  as  an  easy  conquest.  One  circumstance  which  had 
not  been  calculated  on  —  the  magnanimity  of  Gustavus  — 
overthrew  this  deceitful  policy.  An  eight  years'  war  in 
Poland,  so  far  from  exhausting  the  power  of  Sweden, 
had  only  served  to  mature  the  military  genius  of  Gustavus, 
to  inure  the  Swedish  army  to  warfai'e,  and  insensibly  to 
perfect  tliat  system  of  tactics  by  which  they  were  after- 
wards to  perform  such  wonders  in  Germany. 

After  this  necessary  digression  on  the  existing  circum- 
stances of  Europe,  I  now  resume  the  thread  of  my  history. 

Ferdinand  had  regained  his  dominions,  but  had  not 
indemnified  himself  for  the  expenses  of  recovering  them. 
A  sum  of  forty  millions  of  florins,  which  the  confiscations 
in  Bohemia  and  Moravia  had  produced,  would  have 
sufficed  to  reimburse  both  himself  and  his  allies ;  but  the 
Jesuits  and  his  favorites  soon  squandered  this  sum,  large 
as  it  was.  Maximilian,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  to  whose  vic- 
torious arm,  principally,  the  Emperor  owed  the  recovery 
of  his  dominions ;  who,  in  the  service  of  religion  and  the 
Emperor,  had  sacrificed  his  near  relation,  liad  the 
strongest  claims  on  his  gratitude  ;  and,  moreover,  in  a 
treaty  which,  before  the  war,  the  duke  had  concluded 
with  the  Emperor,  he  had  expressly  stipulated  for  the 
reimbursement  of  all  expenses.  Ferdinand  felt  the  full 
weiglit  of  the  obligation  imposed  upon  him  by  this  treaty 
and  by  these  services,  but  he  was  not  disposed  to  discharge 
it  at  his  own  cost.  His  purpose  was  to  bestow  a  brilliant 
reward  upon  the  duke,  but  without  detriment  to  himself. 
How  could  this  be  done  better  than  at  the  expense  of  the 
unfortunate  prince  who,  by  his  revolt,  had  given  the 
Eni]ieror  a  right  to  punish  him,  and  whose  offences 
might  be  painted  in  colors  strong  enough  to  justify  the 
most  violent  measures  under  the  appearance  of  law. 
That,  then,  Maximilian  may  be  rewarded,  Frederick 
must  be  further  persecuted  and  totally  ruined ;  and  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  old  war  a  new  one  must  be 
commenced. 


98  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

But  a  still  stronger  motive  combined  to  enforce  the 
fii'st.  Hitherto  Ferdinand  had  been  contending^  for 
existence  alone ;  lie  had  been  fulfilling  no  other  duty 
than  that  of  self-defence.  But  now,  when  victory  gave 
him  freedom  to  act,  a  higher  duty  occurred  to  him,  and 
he  remembered  the  vow  which  he  had  made  at  Loretto 
and  at  Rome,  to  his  generalissimo,  the  Holy  Virgin,  to 
extend  her  worship  even  at  the  risk  of  his  crown  and 
life.  With  this  object  the  oppression  of  the  Protestants 
was  inseparably  connected.  More  favorable  circum- 
stances for  its  accomplishment  could  not  offer  than  those 
which  presented  themselves  at  the  close  of  the  Bohemian 
war.  Neither  the  power,  nor  a  pretext  of  right,  were 
now  wanting  to  enable  him  to  place  the  Palatinate  in  the 
hands  of  the  Catholics,  and  the  importance  of  this  change 
to  the  Catholic  interests  in  Germany  would  be  incalcul- 
able. Thus,  in  rewarding  tlie  Duke  of  Bavaria  with  the 
spoils  of  his  relation,  he  at  once  gratified  his  meanest 
passions  and  fulfilled  liis  most  exalted  duties ;  he  crushed 
an  enemy  whom  he  hated,  and  spared  his  avarice  a 
painful  sacrifice,  while  he  believed  he  was  winning  an 
heavenly  crown. 

In  the  Emperor's  cabinet  the  ruin  of  Frederick  had 
been  resolved  upon  long  before  fortune  had  decided 
against  him  ;  but  it  was  only  after  this  event  that  they 
ventured  to  direct  against  him  the  tliunders  of  ai'bitrary 
power.  A  decree  of  the  Emperor,  destitute  of  all  the 
formalities  required  on  such  occasions  by  the  laws  of  the 
Empire,  pronounced  the  Elector,  and  three  other  princes 
who  had  borne  arms  for  him  at  Silesia  and  Bohemia,  as 
offendei-s  against  the  imperial  majesty,  and  disturbers  of 
the  public  peace,  under  the  ban  of  the  empire,  and 
deprived  them  of  their  titles  and  territories.  The  execu- 
tion of  this  sentence  against  Frederick,  namely,  the  seizure 
of  liis  lands,  was,  in  further  contempt  of  law,  committed 
to  Spain  as  Sovereign  of  the  circle  of  Burgundy,  to  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  and  the  League.  Had  the  Evangelic 
Union  been  wortliy  of  the  name  it  bore,  and  of  the  cause 
which  it  pretended  to  defend,  insuperable  obstacles  might 
have  prevented  the  execution  of  the  sentence ;  but  it  was 
hopeless  for  a  power  which  was  far  from  a  match  even 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS '   WAR.  99 

for  the  Spanish  troops  in  the  Lower  Palatinate,  to  con- 
tend against  the  united  strength  .of  the  Emperor,  Bavaria, 
and  the  League.  The  sentence  of  proscription  pronounced 
upon  the  Elector  soon  detaclied  the  free  cities  from  the 
Union  ;  and  the  princes  quickly  followed  their  example. 
Fortunate  in  preserving  their  own  dominions,  they  aban- 
doned the  Elector,  their  former  chief,  to  the  Emperor's 
mercy,  renounced  the  Union,  and  vowed  never  to  revive 
it  again. 

But  while  thus  ingloriously  the  German  princes  deserted 
the  unfortunate  Frederick,  and  while  Bohemia,  Silesia, 
and  Moravia  submitted  to  the  Emperor,  a  single  man,  a 
soldier  of  fortune,  whose  only  treasure  was  his  sword, 
Ernest  Count  Mansfeld,  dared,  in  the  Bohemian  town  of 
Pilsen,  to  defy  the  whole  power  of  Austria.  Left  without 
assistance  after  the  battle  of  Prague  by  the  Elector,  to 
whose  service  he  had  devoted  himself,  and  even  uncertain 
whether  Frederick  would  thank  him  for  his  perseverance, 
he  alone  for  some  time  held  out  against  the  imperialists, 
till  the  garrison,  mutinying  for  want  of  pay,  sold  the  town 
to  the  Emperor.  Undismayed  by  this  reverse,  he  imme- 
diately commenced  new  levies  in  the  Upper  Palatinate, 
and  enlisted  the  disbanded  troops  of  the  Union.  A  new 
army  of  twenty  thousand  men  was  soon  assembled 
under  his  banners,  the  more  formidable  t^o  the  provinces 
which  might  be  the  object  of  its  attack,  because  it  must  sub- 
sist by  plunder.  Uncertain  M'here  tliis  swarm  might  light, 
the  neighboring  bishops  trembled  for  their  rich  posses- 
sions, which  offered  a  tem])ting  prey  to  its  ravages.  But, 
pressed  by  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  now  entered  the 
Upper  Palatinate,  Mansfeld  was  compelled  to  retire. 
Eluding,  by  a  successful  stratagem,  the  Bavarian  general, 
Tilly,  who  was  in  pursuit  of  him,  he  suddenly  appeared 
in  the  Lower  Palatinate,  and  there  wreaked  upon  the 
bishoprics  of  the  Rhine  the  severities  he  had  designed  for 
those  of  Franconia.  While  the  imperial  and  Bavarian 
allies  thus  overran  Bohemia,  the  Spanish  general,  Spinola, 
had  penetrated  witli  a  numerous  army  from  the  Nether- 
lands, into  the  Lower  Palatinate,  which,  however,  the 
pacification  of  Ulm  permitted  the  Union  to  defend.  But 
their  measures  were  so  badly  concerted  that  one  place 


100  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

after  another  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards  ;  and  at 
last,  when  the  Union  broke  up,  the  greater  part  of  the 
country  was  in  the  possession  of  Spain.  The  Spanish 
general,  Corduba,  who  commanded  these  troops  after  the 
recall  of  Spinola,  hastily  raised  the  siege  of  Frankenthal, 
when  Mansfeld  entered  the  Lower  Palatinate.  But 
instead  of  driving  the  Spaniards  out  of  this  province,  he 
hastened  across  the  Rhine  to  secure  for  his  needy  troops 
shelter  and  subsistence  in  Alsace.  The  open  coimtries 
on  which  this  swarm  of  maurauders  threw  themselves 
were  converted  into  frightful  deserts,  and  only  by  enor- 
mous contributions  could  the  cities  purchase  an  exemption 
from  plunder.  Reinforced  by  this  expedition,  Mansfeld 
again  appeared  on  the  Rhine  to  cover  the  Lower  Pala- 
tinate. 

So  long  as  such  an  arm  fought  for  him  the  cause  of  the 
Elector  Frederick  was  not  irretrievably  lost.  New 
prospects  began  to  open,  and  misfortune  raised  up  friends 
who  had  been  silent  during  his  prosperity.  King  James 
of  England,  who  had  looked  on  with  indifference  Avhile 
his  son-in-law  lost  the  Bohemian  crown,  Avas  aroused  from 
his  insensibility  when  the  very  existence  of  liis  daughter 
and  grandson  was  at  stake,  and  the  victorious  enemy 
ventured  an  attack  upon  the  Electorate.  Late  enough, 
he  at  last  opened  his  treasures,  and  hastened  to  afford 
supplies  of  money  and  troops,  first  to  the  Union,  which 
at  that  time  was  defending  the  Lower  Palatinate, 
and  afterwards,  when  they  retired,  to  Count  Mansfeld. 
By  his  means  his  near  relation.  Christian,  King  of  Den- 
mark, was  induced  to  afford  his  active  support.  At  the 
same  time,  the  approaching  expiration  of  the  truce 
between  Spain  and  Holland  deprived  the  Emperor  of  all 
the  supplies  which  otherwise  he  might  expect  from  the 
side  of  the  Netherlands.  More  important  still  was  the 
assistance  which  the  Palatinate  received  from  Transyl- 
vania and  Hungary.  The  cessation  of  hostilities  between 
Gabor  and  the  Emperor  was  scarcely  at  an  end,  when 
this  old  and  formidable  enemy  of  Austria  overran  Hun- 
gary anew,  and  caused  himself  to  be  crowned  king  in 
Presburg.  So  rapid  was  his  progress  that,  to  protect 
Austria  and  Hungary,  Boucquoi  was  obliged  to  evacuate 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  101 

Bohemia.  This  brave  general  met  his  death  at  the  siege 
of  Neuhausel,  as,  shortly  before,  the  no  less  valiant 
Dampierre  had  fallen  before  Presburg.  Gabor's  march 
into  the  Austrian  territory  was  irresistible ;  tlie  old 
Count  Thnrn,  and  several  other  distinguished  Bohemians, 
had  united  their  hatred  and  their  strength  with  this 
irreconcilable  enemy  of  Austria.  A  vigorous  attack  on 
the  side  of  Germany,  while  Gabor  pressed  the  Emperor 
on  that  of  Hungai-y,  might  have  retrieved  the  fortunes  of 
Frederick ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  Bohemians  and  Ger- 
mans had  always  laid  down  their  arras  when  Gabor  took 
the  field ;  and  the  latter  was  always  exhausted  at  tlie  very 
moment  that  the  former  beojan  to  recover  their  vieror. 

Meanwhile  Frederick  had  not  delayed  to  join  his  pro- 
tector, Mansfeld.  In  disguise  he  entered  the  Lower  Pala- 
tinate, of  which  the  possession  was  at  that  time  disputed 
betwen  Mansfeld  and  the  Bavarian  general,  Tilly,  the 
Upper  Palatinate  having  been  long  conquered.  A  ray  of 
hope  shone  upon  him  as,  from  the  wreck  of  the  Union, 
new  friends  came  forward.  A  former  member  of  the 
Union,  Geoi-ge  Frederick,  Margrave  of  Baden,  had  for 
some  time  been  engaged  in  assembling  a  military  force, 
which  soon  amounted  to  a  considerable  army.  Its  des- 
tination was  kept  a  secret  till  he  suddenly  took  the 
field  and  joined  Mansfeld.  Before  commencing  the  war, 
he  resigned  his  Margravate  to  his  son,  in  the  liope  of 
eluding,  by  this  precaution,  the  Emperor's  revenge,  if  his 
enterprise  should  be  unsuccessful.  His  neighbor,  the 
Duke  of  Wirtemberg,  likewise  began  to  augment  his 
military  force.  The  courage  of  the  Palatine  revived, 
and  he  labored  assiduously  to  renew  the  Protestant 
Union.  It  was  now  time  for  Tilly  to  consult  for  his  own 
safety,  and  he  hastily  summoned  the  Spanish  troops, 
under  Corduba,  to  his  assistance.  But  while  the  enemy 
was  uniting  his  strength,  Mansfeld  and  the  Margrave 
separated,  and  the  latter  was  defeated  by  the  Bavarian 
general  near  Wimpfen  (16'22). 

To  defend  a  king  whom  his  nearest  relation  persecuted, 
and  who  was  deserted  even  by  his  own  father-in-law, 
there  had  come  forward  an  adventurer  without  money, 
and  whose  very  legitimacy  was  questioned.     A  sovereign 


102  THE    THIRTY   YEARS     WAR. 

had  resigned  possessions  over  which  he  reigned  in  peace 
to  hazard  the  uncertain  fortune  of  war  in  behalf  of  a 
stranger.  And  now  another  soldier  of  fortune,  poor  in 
territorial  possessions,  but  rich  in  illustrious  ancestry, 
undertook  the  defence  of  a  cause  which  the  former  des- 
paired of.  Christian,  Duke  of  Brunswick,  administrator 
of  Halberstadt,  seemed  to  have  learnt  from  Count  Mans- 
feld  the  secret  of  keepbig  in  the  field  an  army  of  twenty 
thousand  men  without  money.  Impelled  by  youthful  pre- 
sumption, and  influenced  partly  by  the  wish  of  establish- 
ing his  reputation  at  the  expense  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood,  whom  he  cordially  detested,  and  partly  by 
a  thirst  for  plunder,  he  assembled  a  considerable  army  in 
Lower  Saxony,  under  the  pretext  of  espousing  the  defence 
of  Frederick,  and  of  the  liberties  of  Germany.  "  God's 
Friend,  Priests'  Foe,"  was  the  motto  he  chose  for  his 
coinage,  which  was  struck  out  of  church  plate ;  and  his 
conduct  belied  one-half  at  least  of  the  device. 

The  progress  of  these  banditti  was,  as  usual,  marked 
by  the  most  frightful  devastation.  Enriched  by  the 
spoils  of  the  chapters  of  Lower  Saxony  and  Westphalia, 
they  gathered  strength  to  plunder  the  bishoprics  upon 
the  IJpper  Rhine.  Driven  from  thence,  both  by  friends 
and  foes,  the  Administrator  approached  the  town  of 
Hoechst  on  the  Maine,  which  he  crossed  after  a  murderous 
action  with  Tilly,  who  disputed  with  him  the  passage  of 
the  river.  With  the  loss  of  half  his  army  he  reached  the 
opposite  bank,  where  he  quickly  collected  his  shattered 
troops,  and  formed  a  junction  with  Mansfeld.  Pursued 
by  Tilly,  this  united  host  threw  itself  again  into  Alsace, 
to  rejDeat  their  foi-mer  ravages.  While  the  Elector  Fred- 
erick followed,  almost  like  a  fugitive  mendicant,  this 
swarm  of  plunderers,  which  acknowledged  him  as  its  lord, 
and  dignified  itself  with  his  name,  his  friends  were 
busily  endeavoring  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between 
him  and  the  Emperor.  Ferdinand  took  care  not  to 
deprive  them  of  all  hope  of  seeing  the  Palatine  I'estored 
to  his  dominion.  Full  of  artifice  and  dissimulation,  he 
pretended  to  be  willing  to  enter  into  a  negotiation,  hoping 
thereby  to  cool  their  ardor  in  the  field,  and  to  prevent 
them  from  driving  matters  to  extremity.     James  I.,  ever 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  103 

the  dupe  of  Spanish  cunning,  contributed  not  a  little,  by 
his  foolish  intermeddling,  to  promote  the  Emperor's 
schemes.  Ferdinand  insisted  that  Frederick,  if  he  would 
appeal  to  his  clemency,  should,  first  of  all,  lay  down  his 
arms,  and  James  considered  this  demand  extremely 
reasonable.  At  his  instigation  the  Elector  dismissed 
his  only  real  defenders.  Count  Mansfeld  and  the  Adminis- 
trator, and  in  Holland  awaited  his  own  fate  from  the 
mercy  of  the  Emperor. 

Mansfeld  and  Duke  Christian  were  now  at  a  loss  for 
some  new  name ;  the  cause  of  the  Elector  had  not  set 
them  in  motion,  so  his  dismissal  could  not  disarm  them. 
War  was  their  object;  it  was  all  the  same  to  them  in 
whose  cause  or  name  it  was  waged.  After  some  vain 
attemj^ts  on  the  part  of  Mansfeld  to  be  received  into  the 
Emperor's  service,  both  marched  into  Lorraine,  where 
the  excesses  of  their  troops  spread  terror  even  to  the 
heart  of  France.  Here  they  long  waited  in  vain  for  a 
master  willing  to  purchase  their  services  ;  till  the  Dutch, 
pressed  by  the  Spanish  General  Spinola,  offered  to  take 
tliem  into  pay.  After  a  bloody  fight  at  Fleurus  with 
the  Spaniards,  who  attempted  to  intercept  them,  they 
reached  Holland,  where  their  appearance  compelled  the 
S])anish  general  forthwith  to  raise  the  siege  of  Bergen- 
o]>Zoom.  But  even  Holland  was  soon  weary  of  these 
dangerous  guests,  and  availed  herself  of  the  first  moment 
to  get  rid  of  their  unwelcome  assistance.  Mansfeld 
allowed  his  troojis  to  recruit  themselves  for  new  enter- 
prises in  the  fertile  province  of  East  Friezeland.  Duke 
Christian,  passionately  enamoured  of  the  Electress  Pala- 
tine, with  whom  he  had  become  acquainted  in  Holland, 
and  more  disposed  for  war  than  ever,  led  back  his  army 
into  Lower  Saxony,  bearing  that  princess's  glove  in  his 
hat,  and  on  his  standards  the  motto,  "  All  for  God  and 
Her."  Neither  of  these  adventurers  had  as  yet  run  their 
career  in  this  war. 

All  the  imperial  territories  were  now  free  from  the 
enemy;  the  Union  was  dissolved;  the  Margrave  of 
Baden,  Duke  Christian,  and  Mansfeld  driven  from  the 
field,  and  the  Palatinate  overrun  by  the  executive  troops 
of  the  empire.   Manheim  and  Heidelberg  were  in  possession 


104  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

of  Bavaria,  and  Frankenthal  was  shortly  afterwards  ceded 
to  the  Spaniards.  The  Pahatine,  in  a  distant  corner  of 
Holland,  awaited  the  disgraceful  permission  to  appease, 
by  abject  submission,  the  vengeance  of  the  Emperor; 
and  an  Electoral  Diet  was  at  last  summoned  to  decide 
his  fate.  That  fate,  however,  had.  been  long  before 
decided  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor ;  though  now,  for 
the  first  time,  were  circumstances  favorable  for  giving 
publicity  to  the  decision.  After  his  past  measures 
towards  the  Elector,  Ferdinand  believed  that  a  sincere 
reconciliation  was  not  to  be  hoped  for.  The  violent 
course  he  had  once  begun  must  be  completed  sucessfuUy, 
or  recoil  upon  himself.  What  was  already  lost  was 
irrecoverable ;  Frederick  could  never  hope  to  regain  his 
dominions ;  and  a  prince  without  territory  and  without 
subjects  had  little  chance  of  retaining  the  electoral  crown. 
Deeply  as  the  Palatine  had  offended  against  the  House 
of  Austria,  the  services  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  were  no 
less  meritorious.  If  the  House  of  Austria  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  had  much  to  dread  from  the  resentment 
and  religious  rancor  of  the  Palatine  family,  they  had  as 
much  to  hope  from  the  gratitude  and  religious  zeal  of 
the  Bavarian.  Lastly,  by  the  cession  of  the  Palatine 
Electorate  to  Bavaria,  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  would 
obtain  a  decisive  preponderance  in  the  Electoral  College, 
and  secure  a  permanent  triumph  in  Germany. 

The  last  circumstance  was  sufficient  to  win  the  support 
of  the  three  Ecclesiastical  Electors  to  this  innovation  ; 
and  among  the  Protestants  the  vote  of  Saxony  was  alone 
of  any  importance.  But  could  John  George  be  expected 
to  dispute  with  the  Emperor  a  right,  without  which  he 
would  expose  to  question  his  own  title  to  the  electoral 
dignity?  To  a  prince  whom  descent,  dignity,  and 
political  power  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Protestant 
church  in  Germany,  nothing,  it  is  true,  ouglit  to  be  more 
sacred  than  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  that  church 
against  all  tlie  encroachments  of  the  Roman  Catholics. 
]iut  the  question  here  was  not  whether  the  interests  of 
the  Protestants  were  to  be  supported  against  the  Roman 
Catholics,  but  which  of  two  religions  ecpially  detested, 
the  Calvinistic  and  the  Popish,  was  to  triumph  over  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  105 

otlier ;  to  wliich  of  the  two  enemies,  equally  dangerous, 
tlie  Palatinate  was  to  be  assigned  ;  and  in  this  clashino- 
of  o])posite  duties,  it  was  natural  that  private  hate  and 
private  gain  should  determine  the  event.  The  born 
protector  of  the  liberties  of  Germany,  and  of  the  Prot- 
estant religion,  encouraged  the  Emperor  to  dispose  of  the 
Palatinate  by  his  imperial  prerogative  ;  and  to  apprehend 
no  resistance  on  the  part  of  Saxony  to  his  measui-es  on 
the  mere  ground  of  form.  If  the  Elector  was  afterwards 
disposed  to  retract  this  consent,  Ferdinand  himself,  by 
driving  the  Evangelical  preachers  from  Bohemia,  was  the 
cause  of  this  change  of  opinion ;  and,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Elector,  the  transference  of  the  Palatine  Electorate  to 
Bavaria  ceased  to  be  illegal  as  soon  as  Ferdinand  was 
prevailed  upon  to  cede  Lusatia  to  Saxony,  in  consideration 
of  six  millions  of  dollars,  as  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

Thus,  in  defiance  of  all  Protestant  Germany,  and  in 
mockery  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  empire,  which, 
at  his  election,  he  had  sworn  to  maintain,  Ferdinand  at 
Ratisbon  solemnly  invested  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  with  the 
Palatinate,  without  prejudice,  as  the  form  ran,  to  the 
rights  which  the  relations  or  descendants  of  Frederick 
might  afterwards  establish.  That  unfortunate  prince 
thus  saw  himself  irrevocably  driven  from  his  possessions, 
without  having  been  even  heard  before  the  tribunal  which 
condemned  him  —  a  privilege  which  the  law  allows  to  the 
meanest  subject,  and  even  to  the  most  atrocious  criminal. 

This  violent  step  at  last  opened  the  eyes  of  the  King 
of  England ;  and  as  the  negotiations  for  the  marriage  of 
his  son  with  the  Infanta  of  Spain  were  now  broken  off, 
James  began  seriously  to  espouse  the  cause  of  his  son-in- 
law.  A  change  in  the  French  ministry  had  placed  Cardi- 
nal Richelieu  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  this  fallen 
kingdom  soon  began  to  feel  that  a  great  mind  was  at  the 
helm  of  state.  The  attempts  of  the  Spanish  Viceroy  in 
Milan  to  gain  possession  of  the  Valtelline,  and  thus  to- 
form  a  junction  Avith  the  Austrian  hereditary  dominions, 
revived  the  olden  dread  of  this  power,  and  Avith  it  the 
policy  of  Henry  the  Great.  The  marriage  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  with  Henrietta  of  France  established  a  close 
union  between  the  two  crowns;  and  to  this  alliance, 


106  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Holland,  Denmark,  and  some  of  the  Italian  states  presently- 
acceded.  Its  object  was  to  exi^el,  by  force  of  arras, 
Spain  from  the  Valtelline,  and  to  compel  Austria  to 
reinstate  Frederick ;  biit  only  the  first  of  these  designs 
was  prosecuted  with  vigor.  James  I.  died,  and  Charles 
I.,  involved  in  disputes  with  his  Parliament,  could  not 
bestow  attention  on  the  affairs  of  Germany.  Savoy  and 
Venice  withheld  their  assistance  ;  and  the  French  min- 
ister thought  it  necessary  to  subdue  the  Huguenots  at 
home  before  he  supported  tlie  German  Protestants 
against  the  Emperor.  Great  as  were  the  hopes  which 
had  been  formed  from  this  alliance,  they  were  yet  equalled 
by  the  disappointment  of  the  event. 

Mansfeld,  deprived  of  all  support,  remained  inactive  on 
the  Lower  Rhine ;  and  Duke  Christian  of  Brunswick, 
after  an  unsuccessful  campaign,  Avas  a  second  time  driven 
out  of  Germany.  A  fresh  irruption  of  Bethlen  Gabor 
into  Moravia,  frustrated  by  the  want  of  support  from  the 
Germans,  terminated,  like  all  the  rest,  in  a  formal  peace 
with  the  Emperor.  The  Union  was  no  more ;  no  Prot- 
estant prince  was  in  arms  ;  and  on  the  frontiers  of  Lower 
Germany,  the  Bavarian  General  Tilly,  at  the  head  of  a 
victorious  army,  encamped  in  the  Protestant  territory. 
The  movements  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  had  drawn 
him  into  this  quarter,  and  even  into  the  circle  of  Lower 
Saxony,  when  he  made  himself  master  of  the  Adminis- 
trator's magazines  at  Lippstadt.  The  necessity  of  observ- 
ing this  enemy,  and  preventing  him  from  new  inroads, 
was  the  pretext  assigned  for  continuing  Tilly's  stay  in 
the  country.  But,  in  truth,  both  Mansfeld  and  Duke 
Christian  had,  from  want  of  money,  disbanded  their 
armies,  and  Count  Tilly  had  no  enemy  to  dread.  Why, 
then,  still  burden  the  country  with  his  presence  ? 

It  is  difficult,  amidst  the  uproar  of  contending  parties, 
to  distinguish  the  voice  of  truth  ;  but  certainly  it  Avas 
matter  for  alarm  that  the  League  did  not  lay  down  its 
arms.  The  premature  rejoicings  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
too,  were  calculated  to  increase  apprehension.  The 
Emperor  and  the  League  stood  armed  and  victorious  in 
Germany  without  a  power  to  oppose  them,  should  they 
venture  to  attack  the  Protestant  states  and  to  annul  the 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  107 

religious  treaty.  Had  Ferdinand  been  in  reality  far 
from  disposed  to  abuse  his  conquests,  still  the  defence- 
less position  of  the  Protestants  was  most  likely  to  sug- 
gest the  temptation.  Obsolete  conventions  could  not 
bind  a  prince  who  thought  that  he  owed  all  to  religion, 
and  believed  that  a  religious  creed  would  sanctify  any 
deed,  however  violent.  Upper  Germany  was  already 
overpowered.  Lower  Germany  alone  could  check  his 
despotic  authority.  Here  the  Protestants  still  predomi- 
nated ;  the  church  had  been  forcibly  deprived  of  most  of 
its  endowments ;  and  the  present  appeared  a  favorable 
moment  for  recovering  these  lost  possessions.  A  great 
part  of  the  strength  of  the  Lower  German  princes  con- 
sisted in  these  Chaj^ters,  and  the  plea  of  restoring  its 
own  to  the  church  afforded  an  excellent  pretext  for 
weakening  these  princes. 

Unpardonable  would  have  been  their  negligence  had 
they  remained  inactive  in  this  danger.  The  remem- 
brance of  the  ravages  which  Tilly's  army  had  committed 
in  Lower  Saxony  was  too  recent  not  to  arouse  the 
Estates  to  measures  of  defence.  With  all  haste  the 
circle  of  Lower  Saxony  began  to  arm  itself.  Extraor- 
dinary contributions  were  levied,  troops  collected,  and 
magazines  filled.  Negotiations  for  subsidies  were  set  on 
foot  Avith  Venice,  Holland,  and  England.  They  deliber- 
ated, too,  what  power  should  be  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  confederacy.  The  kings  of  the  Sound  and  the  Baltic, 
the  natural  allies  of  this  circle,  would  not  see  with  indif- 
ference the  Emperor  treating  it  as  a  conqueror,  and 
establishing  himself  as  their  neighbor  on  the  shores  of  the 
North  Sea.  The  twofold  interests  of  religion  and  policy 
urged  them  to  put  a  stop  to  his  progress  in  Lower  Ger- 
many. Christian  IV.,  of  Denmark,  as  Duke  of  Holstein, 
was  himself  a  prince  of  this  circle,  and  by  considerations 
equally  powerful  Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden  was 
induced  to  join  the  confederacy. 

These  two  kinsjs  vied  with  each  other  for  the  honor  of 
defending  Lower  Saxony,  and  of  opposing  the  formidable 
power  of  Austria.  Each  offered  to  raise  a  well- disciplined 
army,  and  to  lead  it  in  person.  His  victorious  campaigns 
against  Moscow  and  Poland  gave  weight  to  the  promises 


108  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

of  the  King  of  Sweden.  The  shores  of  the  Baltic  were 
full  of  the  name  of  Gustavus.  But  the  fame  of  liis  rival 
excited  the  envy  of  the  Danish  monarch ;  and  the  more 
success  he  promised  himself  in  this  campaign  the  less 
disposed  was  he  to  show  any  favor  to  his  envied  neigh- 
bor. Both  laid  their  conditions  and  i:)lans  before  the 
English  ministry,  and  Cliristian  IV.  finally  succeeded  in 
outbidding  his  rival,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  for  his  own 
security,  liad  demanded  the  cession  of  some  places  of 
strength  in  Germany,  where  he  himself  had  no  territories 
to  afford,  in  case  of  need,  a  place  of  refuge  for  his  troops. 
Christian  IV.  possessed  Holstein  and  Jutland,  through 
which,  in  the  event  of  a  defeat,  he  could  always  secure  a 
retreat. 

Eager  to  get  the  start  of  his  competitor,  the  King  of 
Denmark  hastened  to  take  the  field.  Appointed  general- 
issimo of  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  he  soon  had  an 
army  of  sixty  thousand  men  in  motion  ;  the  administrator 
of  Magdeburg,  and  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Meck- 
lenburgh  entered  into  an  alliance  with  him.  Encouraged 
by  the  hope  of  assistance  from  England,  and  the  posses- 
sion of  so  large  a  force,  he  flattered  himself  he  should  be 
able  to  terminate  the  war  in  a  single  campaign. 

At  Vienna  it  was  oflicially  notified  that  the  only  object 
of  tliese  preparations  was  the  protection  of  the  circle,  and 
the  maintenance  of  the  peace.  But  the  negotiations  with 
Holland,  England,  and  even  France,  the  extraordinary 
exertions  of  the  circle,  and  the  raising  of  so  formidable 
an  army,  seemed  to  have  something  more  in  view  than 
defensive  operations,  and  to  contemplate  nothing  less  than 
the  complete  restoration  of  the  Elector  Palatine,  and  the 
humiliation  of  the  dreaded  power  of  Austria. 

After  negotiations,  exhortations,  commands,  and  threats 
had  in  vain  been  employed  by  the  Em2)eror  in  order  to 
induce  the  King  of  Denmark  and  the  circle  of  Lower 
Saxony  to  lay  down  their  arms,  hostilities  commenced, 
and  Lower  Germany  became  tlie  theatre  of  war.  Count 
Tilly,  marching  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Weser, 
made  himself  master  of  all  the  passes  as  far  as  Minden. 
After  an  unsuccessful  attack  on  Nieuburg,  he  crossed  the 
river  and  overran  the  principality  of  Calemberg,  in  which 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  109 

he  quartered  his  troops.  The  king  conducted  his  oper- 
ations on  the  riglit  bank  of  the  river,  and  spread  his 
forces  over  the  territories  of  Brunswick,  but  having 
weakened  his  main  body  by  too  jDowerful  detachments, 
he  could  not  engage  in  any  enterprise  of  importance. 
Aware  of  his  opponent's  superiority,  he  avoided  a  decisive 
action  as  anxiously  as  the  general  of  the  League  sought  it. 

With  the  exception  of  the  troops  from  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  which  had  poured  into  the  Lower  Palatinate, 
the  Emperor  had  hitherto  made  use  only  of  the  arms  of 
Bavaria  and  the  League  in  Germany.  Maximilian  con- 
ducted the  war  as  executor  of  the  ban  of  the  empire,  and 
Tilly,  who  commanded  the  army  of  execution,  was  in  the 
Bavarian  service.  The  Emperor  owed  superiority  in  the 
field  to  Bavaria  and  the  League,  and  his  fortunes  were  in 
their  hands.  This  dependence  on  their  good-will  but  ill 
accorded  with  the  grand  schemes  which  the  brilliant 
commencement  of  the  war  had  led  the  imperial  cabinet 
to  form. 

However  active  the  League  had  shown  itself  in  the 
Emperior's  defence,  while  thereby  it  secured  its  own 
welfare,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  it  would  enter  as 
readily  into  his  views  of  conquest.  Or,  if  they  still  con- 
tinued to  lend  their  armies  for  that  purpose,  is  was  too 
much  to  be  feared  that  they  would  share  with  the  Em- 
peror nothing  but  general  odium,  while  they  appropriated 
to  themselves  all  advantages.  A  strong  army  Tender  his 
own  orders  could  alone  free  him  from  this  debasing  de- 
pendence upon  Bavaria,  and  restore  to  him  his  former 
pre-eminence  in  Germany.  But  the  war  had  already  ex- 
hausted the  imperial  dominions,  and  they  were  unequal 
to  the  expense  of  such  an  armament.  In  these  circum- 
stances nothing  could  be  more  w^elcome  to  the  Emperor 
tlian  the  proposal  with  which  one  of  his  officers  surprised 
him. 

This  was  Count  Wallenstein,  an  experienced  officer, 
and  the  richest  nobleman  in  Bohemia.  From  his  earliest 
youth  he  had  been  in  tlie  service  of  the  House  of  Austria, 
and  several  canijiuigns  against  the  Turks,  Venetians, 
Bohemians,  Hungarians,  and  Tran sylvan ians  had  estab- 
lished his  reputation.     He  was  i)resent  as  colonel  at  the 


110  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

battle  of  Prague,  and  afterwards,  as  major-general,  had 
defeated  a  Hungarian  force  in  Moravia.  The  Emperor's 
gratitude  was  equal  to  his  services,  and  a  large  share  of 
the  confiscated  estates  of  the  Bohemian  insurgents  was 
their  reward.  Possessed  of  immense  property,  excited  by 
ambitious  views,  confident  in  his  own  good  fortune,  and 
still  more  encouraged  by  the  existing  state  of  circum- 
stances, he  offered,  at  his  own  expense  and  that  of  his 
friends,  to  raise  and  clothe  an  army  for  the  Emperor,  and 
even  undertook  the  cost  of  maintaining  it,  if  he  were 
allowed  to  augment  it  to  fifty  thousand  men.  The  project 
was  universally  ridiculed  as  the  chimerical  offspring  of  a 
visionary  brain  ;  but  the  offer  was  highly  valuable,  if  its 
promises  should  be  but  partially  fulfilled.  Certain  circles 
in  Bohemia  were  assigned  to  him  as  depots,  with  au- 
thority to  appoint  his  own  officers.  In  a  few  months  he 
had  twenty  thousand  men  u.nder  arras,  with  which,  quit- 
ting the  Austrian  territories,  he  soon  afterwards  appeared 
on  the  frontiers  of  Lower  Saxony  with  thirty  thousand. 
The  Emperor  had  lent  this  armament  nothing  but  his 
name.  The  reputation  of  the  general,  the  prospect  of 
rapid  promotion,  and  the  hope  of  plunder,  attracted  to 
his  standard  adventurers  from  all  quarters  of  Germany ; 
and  even  sovereign  princes,  stimulated  by  the  desire  of 
glory  or  of  gain,  offered  to  raise  regiments  for  the  service 
of  Austria. 

Now,  therefore,  for  the  first  time  in  this  war,  an  impe- 
rial artny  appeared  in  Germany  ;  an  event  which,  if  it  was 
menacing  to  the  Protestants,  was  scarcely  more  acce])t- 
able  to  the  Catholics.  Wallenstein  had  orders  to  unite 
his  army  with  the  troops  of  the  League,  and  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Bavarian  general  to  attack  the  King  of 
Denmark.  But,  long  jealous  of  Tilly's  fame,  he  showed 
no  disposition  to  share  with  him  the  laurels  of  the  cam- 
paign or  in  the  splendors  of  his  rival's  achievements  to 
dim  the  lustre  of  his  own.  Mis  plan  of  operations  was  to 
support  the  latter,  but  to  act  entirely  independently  of 
him.  As  he  had  not  resources,  like  Tilly,  for  supplying 
the  wants  of  his  army,  he  was  obliged  to  march  his  troo])S 
into  fcrt,il(!  countries  wliich  had  not  as  yet  suffitred  from 
war.      Disul)c')iiig,   therefore,  tlic  order  to  form  a  June- 


THE    TIIIKTY    YEAES'    WAK.  Ill 

tion  with  the  general  of  the  League,  he  inarched  into 
the  territories  of  Halberstadt  and  Magdeburg,  and  at 
Dessau  made  himself  master  of  the  Elbe.  All  the  lands 
on  either  bank  of  this  river  were  at  his  command,  and 
from  them  he  could  either  attack  the  King  of  Denmark 
in  the  rear,  or,  if  jDrudent,  enter  the  territories  of  that 
prince. 

Christian  IV.  was  fully  aware  of  the  danger  of  his  situar 
tion  between  two  such  powerful  armies.  He  had  already 
been  joined  by  the  administrator  of  Halberstadt,  who 
had  lately  returned  from  Holland  ;  he  now  also  acknowl- 
edged Mausfeld,  whom  previously  he  had  refused^  to 
recognize,  and  supported  him  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 
Mansfeld  amply  requited  this  service.  He  alone  kept 
at  bay  the  army  of  Wallenstein  upon  the  Elbe,  and  pre- 
vented its  junction  with  that  of  Tilly,  and  a  combined 
attack  on  the  King  of  Denmark.  Notwithstanding  the 
enemy's  superiority,  this  intrepid  general  even  ap- 
proached the  bridge  of  Dessau  and  ventured  to  entrench 
himself  in  the  presence  of  the  imperial  lines.  But 
attacked  in  the  rear  by  the  whole  force  of  the  Imperial- 
ists, he  was  obliged  to  yield  to  superior  numbers,  and  to 
abandon  his  post  with  the  loss  of  three  thousand  killed. 
After  this  defeat  Mansfeld  withdrew  into  Brandenburg, 
where  he  soon  recruited  and  reinforced  his  army,  and 
suddenly  turned  into  Silesia;  with  the  view  of  marching 
from  thence  into  Hungary,  and,  in  conjunction  with 
Bethlen  Gabor,  carrying  the  war  into  the  heart  of  Aus- 
tria. As  the  Austrian  dominions  in  that  quarter  were 
entirely  defenceless,  Wallenstein  received  immediate 
orders  to  leave  the  King  of  Denmark,  and  if  possible  to 
intercept  Mansfeld's  progress  through  Silesia. 

The  diversion  which  this  movement  of  Mansfeld  had 
made  in  the  plans  of  Wallenstein  enabled  the  king  to 
detach  a  part  of  his  force  into  Westphalia,  to  seize  the 
bishoprics  of  Munster  and  Osnaburg.  To  check  this 
movement,  Tilly  suddenly  moved  from  the  Weser;  but 
the  operations  of  Duke  Christian,  who  threatened  the 
territories  of  tlie  League  with  an  inroad  in  the  direction 
of  Hesse,  and  to  remove  tliither  the  seat  of  war,  recalled 
him  as  rapidly  from  Westphalia.     lu  order  to  keep  open 


112  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

his  Communications  with  these  provinces,  and  to  prevent 
the  junction  of  the  enemy  with  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
Tilly  hastily  seized  all  the  tenable  posts  on  the  Werha 
and  Fulda,  and  took  up  a  strong  position  in  Minden,  at 
the  foot  of  the  Hessian  Mountains,  and  at  the  confluence 
of  these  rivers  with  the  Weser.  He  soon  made  himself 
master  of  Gottingen,  the  key  of  Brunswick  and  Hesse, 
and  was  meditating  a  similar  attack  upon  Nordheim, 
when  the  king  advanced  upon  him  with  his  whole  army. 
After  throwing  into  this  place  the  necessary  supplies  for 
a  long  siege,  the  latter  attempted  to  open  a  new  passage 
through  Eichsfield  and  Thuringia  into  the  territories  of 
the  League.  He  had  already  reached  Dunderstadt  when 
Tilly,  by  forced  marches,  came  up  with  him.  As  the 
army  of  Tilly,  which  had  been  reinforced  by  some  of 
Wallenstein's  regiments,  was  superior  in  numbers  to  his 
own,  the  king,  in  order  to  avoid  a  battle,  retreated 
towards  Brunswick.  But  Tilly  incessantly  harassed  his 
retreat,  and  after  three  days'  skirmishing  he  was  at 
length  obliged  to  await  the  enemy  near  the  village  of 
Lutter  in  Barenberg.  The  Danes  began  the  attack  with 
great  bravery,  and  thrice  did  their  intrepid  monarch  lead 
them  in  person  against  the  enemy  ;  but  at  length  the 
su])erior  numbers  and  discipline  of  the  Imperialists  pre- 
vailed, and  the  general  of  the  League  obtained  a  com- 
plete victory.  The  Danes  lost  sixty  standards  and  their 
whole  artillery,  baggage,  and  anmiunition.  Several  offi- 
cers of  distinction  and  about  four  thousand  men  were 
killed  in  the  field  of  battle,  and  several  conipanies  of 
foot  in  the  flight,  who  had  thrown  themselves  into  the 
toAvn-house  of  Lutter,  laid  down  their  arms  and  surren- 
dered to  the  conqueror. 

The  king  fled  with  his  cavalry  and  soon  collected  the 
wreck  of  his  army  which  had  survived  this  serious 
defeat.  Tilly  pursued  his  victory,  made  himself  master 
of  the  Weser  and  BrunsAvick,  and  forced  the  king  to 
retire  into  Bremen.  Bendered  more  cautions  l)y  defeat, 
the  latter  now  stood  uj^on  the  defensive,  and  determined 
at  all  events  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  crossing  the 
Elbe.  But  while  lie  threw  garrisons  into  every  tennble 
place,  he  reduced  his  own  diiiiiiiislied  army  to  inactivity; 


THE    THIRTr   YEAKS'   WAR.  113 

and  one  after  another  his  scattered  troops  were  either 
defeated  or  dispersed.  The  forces  of  the  League  in 
command  of  the  Weser  spread  themselves  along  the  Elbe 
and  Havel,  and  everywhere  drove  the  Danes  before 
them.  Tilly,  himself  crossing  the  Elbe,  penetrated  with 
his  victorious  army  into  Brandenburg,  while  Wallenstein 
entered  Ilolstein  to  remove  the  seat  of  war  to  the  king's 
X>wn  dominions. 

This  general  had  just  returned  from  Hungary,  whither 
he  had  pursued  Mansfeld,  without  being  able  to  obstruct 
his  march  or  prevent  his  junction  with  Bethlen  Gabor. 
Constantly  persecuted  by  fortune,  but  always  superior  to 
his  fate,  Mansfeld  had  made  his  way  against  countless 
difficulties  through  Silesia  and  Hungary  to  Transylvania, 
where,  after  all,  he  was  not  very  welcome.  Relying  upon 
the  assistance  of  England,  and  a  powerful  diversion  in 
Lower  Saxony,  Gabor  had  again  broken  the  truce  with 
the  Emperor.  But  in  place  of  the  expected  diversion  in 
his  favor,  Mansfeld  had  drawn  upon  himself  the  whole 
strength  of  Wallenstein,  and  instead  of  bringing,  re- 
quired pecuniary  assistance.  The  want  of  concert  in  the 
Protestant  counsels  cooled  Gabor's  ardor ;  and  he  has- 
tened, as  usual,  to  avert  the  coming  storm  by  a  speedy 
peace.  Firmly  determined,  however,  to  break  it,  with 
the  first  ray  of  hope,  he  directed  Mansfeld  in  the  mean- 
time to  apply  for  assistance  to  Venice. 

Cut  off  from  Germany,  and  unable  to  support  the 
weak  remnant  of  his  troops  in  Hungary,  Mansfeld  sold 
his  artillery  and  baggage  train  and  disbanded  his  soldiers. 
With  a  few  followers  he  proceeded  through  Bosnia  and 
Dalmatia  towards  Venice.  New  schemes  swelled  his 
bosom ;  but  his  career  was  ended.  Fate,  which  had  so 
restlessly  sported  with  him  throughout,  now  prepared 
for  him  a  peaceful  grave  in  Dalmatia.  Death  overtook 
him  in  the  vicinity  of  Zara  in  1626  ;  and  a  short  time 
before  him  died  the  faithful  companion  of  his  fortunes, 
Christian,  Duke  of  Brunswick  —  two  men  worthy  of 
immortality  had  they  but  been  as  superior  to  their  times 
as  they  were  to  their  adversities. 

The  King  of  Denmark,  with  his  whole  army,  was 
unable  to  cope  with  Tilly  alone;  much  less,  therefore, 


114  THE   THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

witli  a  shattered  force  could  he  hold  his  ground  against 
the  two  imperial  generals.  The  Danes  retired  from  all 
their  posts  on  the  Weser,  the  Elbe,  and  the  Havel,  and 
the  army  of  Wallenstein  poured  like  a  torrent  into 
Brandenburg,  Mecklenburgh,  Ilolstein,  and  Sleswick. 
That  general,  too  proud  to  act  in  conjunction  witli 
another,  had  despatched  Tilly  across  the  Elbe  to  watch, 
as  he  gave  out,  the  motions  of  the  Dutch  in  tliat  quarter, 
but  in  reality  that  he  might  terminate  the  war  against 
the  king,  and  reap  for  himself  the  fruits  of  Tilly's  con- 
quests. Christian  had  now  lost  all  his  fortresses  in  the 
German  States,  Avith  the  exception  of  Gluckstadt ;  his 
armies  were  defeated  or  dispersed  ;  no  assistance  came 
from  Germany ;  from  England  little  consolation  ;  while 
his  confederates  in  Lower  Saxony  were  at  the  mercy  of 
the  conqueror.  The  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Cassel  had  been 
forced  by  Tilly,  soon  after  the  battle  of  Lutter,  to  re- 
nounce the  Danish  alliance.  Wallenstein's  formidable 
appearance  before  Berlin  reduced  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg to  submission,  and  comj^elled  him  to  recognize 
as  legitimate  Maximilian's  title  to  the  Palatine  Elector- 
ate. The  greater  part  of  Mecklenburgh  was  now  overrun 
by  imperial  troops,  and  both  dukes,  as  adherents  of  the 
King  of  Denmark,  placed  under  the  ban  of  the  empire 
and  driven  from  their  dominions.  The  defence  of  the 
German  liberties  against  illegal  encroachments  was  pun- 
ished as  a  crime  deserving  the  loss  of  all  dignities 
and  territories  ;  and  yet  this  was  but  the  prelude  to  the 
still  more  crying  enormities  which  shortly  followed. 

The  secret  how  Wallenstein  had  purposed  to  fulfil  his 
extravagant  designs  was  now  manifest.  He  had  learned 
the  lesson  from  Count  Mansfeld;  but  the  scholar  sur- 
passed his  master.  On  tlie  principle  that  war  must  sup- 
port war,  Mansfeld  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  liad 
subsisted  their  troops  by  contributions  levied  indis- 
criminately on  friend  and  enemy;  but  tliis  predatory  life 
was  attended  with  all  the  inconvenience  and  insecurity 
which  accompany  robbery.  Like  a  fugitive  banditti, 
they  were  obliged  to  steal  through  exasperated  and 
vigilant  enemies  ;  to  roam  from  one  end  of  Germany  to 
another ;  to  watch  their  op2>ortunity  with  anxiety,  and 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  115 

to  abandon  the  most  fertile  teiTitories  whenever  they 
were  defended  by  a  superior  army.  If  Mansfeld  and 
Duke  Christian  had  done  such  great  things  in  the  face  of 
these  difficulties,  wliat  might  not  be  expected  if  the 
obstacles  were  removed;  when  the  army  raised  was 
numerous  enough  to  overawe  in  itself  the  most  powerful 
states  of  the  empire;  when  the  name  of  the  Emperor 
insured  impunity  to  every  outrage  ;  and  when,  under  the 
higliest  authority,  and  at  the  head  of  an  overwhelming 
force,  the  same  system  of  warfare  was  pursued  wliich 
these  two  adventurers  had  adopted  at  their  own  risk, 
and  with  only  an  untrained  multitude  ? 

Wallenstein  had  all  this  in  view  when  he  made  his 
bold  offer  to  the  Emperor,  which  now  seemed  extrava- 
gant to  no  one.     The  more  his  army  was  augmented  the 
less  cause  was  there  to  fear  for  its  subsistence,  because  it 
could  irresistibly  bear  down  on  the  refractory  states ;  the 
more  violent  its  outrages   the  more   probable  was   im- 
punity.    Towards  hostile  states  it  had  the  plea  of  right ; 
towards  the  favorably  disposed  it  could  allege  necessity. 
The  inequality,  too,  with  which  it  dealt  out  its  oppres- 
sions prevented  any  dangerous  union  among  the  states, 
while  the  exhaustion  of  their  territories  deprived  them 
of  the  power  of  vengeance.      Thus  the  whole  of    Ger- 
many became  a  kind  of  magazine  for  the  imperial  araiy, 
and  the   Emperor  was    enabled   to  deal  with  the  other 
states  as  absolutely  as  with  his  own  hereditary  domin- 
ions.    Universal  was  the  clamor  for  redress  before  the 
imperial  throne ;  but  there  was  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
revenge  of  the  injured  princes  so  long  as  they  appealed 
for  justice.     The  general  discontent  was  directed  equally 
against  the  Emperor,  who  had  lent  his  name  to  these  bar- 
barities, and  the  general  who   exceeded  his  power  and 
openly  abused   the  authority   of  his   master.     They  ap- 
plied to  the  Emperor  for  protection  agamst  the  outrages 
of  his  jrenerals,  but  Wallenstein  had  no  sooner  felt  him- 
self absolute  in  the  army  than  he  threw  off  his  obedience 

to  his  sovereio-n. 

The  exhaustion  of  the  enemy  made  a  speedy  peace 
probable;  yet  Wallenstein  continued  to  augment  the 
imperial   armies   until   they  were  at  least  one   hundred 


116  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

thousand  men  strong.  Numberless  commissions  to  colo- 
nelcies and  inferior  commands,  the  regal  pomp  of  the 
commander-in-chief,  immoderate  largesses  to  his  favor- 
ites (for  he  never  gave  less  than  a  thousand  florins), 
enormous  sums  lavished  in  corrupting  the  court  at 
Vienna  —  all  this  had  been  effected  without  burdening 
the  Emperor.  These  immense  sums  Avere  raised  by  the 
contributions  levied  from  the  lower  German  provinces, 
where  no  distinction  was  made  between  friend  and  foe  ; 
and  the  territories  of  all  princes  were  subjected  to  the 
same  system  of  marching  and  quartering,  of  extortion 
and  outrage.  If  credit  is  to  be  given  to  an  extravagant 
contemporary  statement,  Wallenstein,  during  his  seven 
years  command,  had  exacted  not  less  than  sixty  thousand 
millions  of  dollars  from  one-half  of  Germany.  The 
greater  his  extortions  the  greater  the  rewards  of  his 
soldiers,  and  the  greater  the  concourse  to  his  standard, 
for  the  world  always  follows  fortune.  His  armies  floui'- 
ished  while  all  the  states  through  which  they  passed 
withered.  What  cared  he  for  the  detestation  of  the 
people  and  the  complaints  of  princes  ?  His  army  adored 
him,  and  the  very  enormity  of  his  guilt  enabled  him  to 
bid  defiance  to  its  consequences. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  Ferdinand  were  we  to  lay  all 
these  irregularities  to  his  charge.  Had  he  foreseen  that 
he  was  abandoning  the  German  states  to  the  mercy  of 
his  officer,  he  would  have  been  sensible  how  dangerous 
to  himself  so  absolute  a  general  would  prove.  The 
closer  the  connection  became  between  the  army  and  the 
leader  from  whom  flowed  favor  and  fortune,  the  more 
the  ties  which  united  both  to  the  Emperor  were  relaxed. 
Everything,  it  is  true,  was  done  in  the  name  of  the 
latter;  but  Wallenstein  only  availed  himself  of  the  su- 
preme majesty  of  the  Emperor  to  crush  the  authority  of 
other  states.  His  object  was  to  depress  the  princes  of 
the  empire,  to  destroy  all  gradation  of  rank  between 
them  and  the  Emperor,  and  to  elevate  the  power  of  the 
latter  above  all  competition.  If  the  Emperor  was  abso- 
lute in  Germany  who  then  would  be  equal  to  the  man 
entrusted  Avith  the  execution  of  his  will?  The  height  to 
which   Wallenstein   had   raised    the   imperial   authority 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  117 

astonished  even  the  Emperor  himself ;  but  as  the  great- 
ness of  the  master  was  entirely  the  work  of  the  servant, 
the  creation  of  Wallenstein  would  necessarily  sink  again 
into  nothing  upon  the  withdi-awal  of  its  creative  hand. 
JSTot  without  an  object,  therefore,  did  Wallenstein  labor 
to  poison  the  minds  of  the  German  princes  against  the 
Emperor.  The  more  violent  their  hatred  of  Ferdinand, 
the  more  indispensable  to  the  Emperor  would  become 
the  man  who  alone  could  render  their  ill-will  powerless. 
His  design  unquestionably  was  that  his  sovereign  should 
stand  in  fear  of  no  one  in  all  Germany  besides  himself, 
the  source  and  engine  of  this  despotic  power. 

As  a  step  towards  this  end,  Wallenstein  now  demanded 
the  cession  of  Mecklenburgh,  to  be  held  in  pledge  till  the 
repayment  of  his  advances  for  the  war.  Ferdinand  had 
already  created  him  Duke  of  Friedland,  apparently  Avith 
the  view  of  exalting  his  own  general  over  Bavaria;  but 
an  ordinary  recompense  would  not  satisfy  vVallenstem  s 
ambition.  In  vain  was  this  new  demand,  which  could 
be  granted  only  at  the  expense  of  two  princes  of  the 
empire,  actively  resisted  in  the  Imperial  Council.  In 
vain  did  the  Spaniards,  who  had  long  been  offended  by 
his  pride,  oppose  his  elevation.  The  powerful  support 
which  Wallenstein  had  purchased  from  the  imperial 
councillors  prevailed,  and  Ferdinand  was  determined,  at 
whatever  cost,  to  secure  the  devotion  of  so  indispensable 
a  minister.  For  a  slight  offence  one  of  the  oldest  Ger- 
man  houses  was  expelled  from  their  hereditary  domin- 
ions, that  a  creature  of  the  Emperor  might  be  enriched 
by  their  spoils  (1628). 

Wallenstein  now  began  to  assume  the  title  of  general- 
issimo of  the  Emperor  by  sea  and  land.  Wismar  was 
taken,  and  a  firm  footing  gained  on  the  Baltic.  Ships 
were  required  from  Poland  and  the  Hans  towns  to  carry 
the  war  to  the  other  side  of  the  Baltic ;  to  pursue  the 
Danes  into  the  heart  of  their  own  country,  and  to  com- 
pel them  to  a  peace  which  might  prepare  the  Avay  to 
more  important  conquests.  The  communication  between 
the  Lower  German  States  and  the  Northern  powers  would 
be  broken  could  the  Emperor  place  himself  between 
them,  and  encompass  Germany  from  the  Adriatic  to  the 


118  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Sound  (the  intervening  kingdom  of  Poland  being  already 
dejjendent  on  hiin)  with  an  unbroken  line  of  territory. 
If  such  was  the  Emperor's  plan,  Wallenstein  had  a  pe- 
culiar interest  in  its  execution.  These  possessions  on 
the  Baltic  should,  he  intended,  form  the  first  foundation 
of  a  power  which  had  long  been  the  object  of  his  ambi- 
tion, and  which  should  enable  him  to  throw  off  his  de- 
pendence on  the  Emi>eror. 

To  effect  this  object  it  was  of  extreme  importance  to 
gain  possession  of  Btralsund,  a  town  on  the  Baltic.  Its 
excellent  harbor,  and  the  short  passage  from  it  to  the 
Swedish  and  Danish  coasts,  peculiarly  fitted  it  for  a  naval 
station  in  a  war  with  these  powers.  This  town,  the 
sixth  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  enjoyed  great  privileges 
under  the  Duke  of  Pomerania,  and,  totally  independent 
of  Denmark,  had  taken  no  share  in  the  war.  But  neither 
its  neutrality  nor  its  privileges  coidd  protect  it  against 
the  encroachments  of  Wallenstein  when  he  had  once  cast 
a  longing  look  upon  it. 

The  request  he  made,  that  Stralsund  should  receive  an 
imperial  garrison,  had  been  firmly  and  honorably  rejected 
by  the  magistracy,  who  also  refused  his  cunningly  de- 
manded permission  to  march  his  troops  through  the 
town.  Wallenstein  therefore  now  proposed  to  be- 
siege it. 

The  independence  of  Stralsund,  as  securing  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Baltic,  was  equally  important  to  the 
two  Northern  kings.  A  common  danger  overcame  at 
last  the  private  jealousies  which  had  long  divided  these 
princes.  In  a  treaty  concluded  at  Co]ienhagen  in  1628 
they  bound  themselves  to  assist  Stralsund  with  their 
combined  force,  and  to  oppose  in  common  every  foreign 
power  which  should  appear  in  the  Baltic  with  hostile 
views.  Christian  IV.  also  threw  a  sufficient  garrison 
into  Stralsund,  and  by  his  personal  presence  animated 
the  courage  of  the  citizens.  Some  ships-of-war  which 
Sigismunci,  King  of  Poland,  had  sent  to  the  assistance  of 
the  imperial  general  were  sunk  by  the  Danish  fleet ;  nnd 
as  Lubeek  refused  him  the  use  of  its  shijiping,  this  im- 
perial generalissimo  of  tlie  sea  had  not  even  ships  enough 
to  blockade  this  single  harbor. 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS*   WAR.  119 

Nothing  could  apj^ear  more  adventurous  than  to  attemjit 
the  conquest  of  a  strongly  fortified  sea2:)ort  without  first 
blockading  its  harbor.  Wallenstein,  however,  who  as  yet 
had  never  experienced  a  check,  wished  to  conquer  nature 
itself,  and  to  perform  iini^ossibilities.  Stralsund,  open  to 
the  sea,  continued  to  be  supplied  witli  provisions  and 
reinforcements  ;  yet  Wallenstein  maintained  his  blockade 
on  the  land  side,  and  endeavored,  by  boasting  menaces, 
to  supply  his  want  of  real  strength.  "I  will  take  this 
town,"  said  he,  "  though  it  were  fastened  by  a  chain  to 
the  heavens."  The  Emperor  himself,  who  might  have 
cause  to  regret  an  enterprise  which  promised  no  very 
glorious  result,  joyfully  availed  himself  of  the  apparent 
submission  and  acceptable  propositions  of  the  inhabitants, 
to  order  the  general  to  retire  from  the  town.  Wallen- 
stein despised  the  command,  and  continued  to  harass  the 
besieged  by  incessant  assaults.  As  the  Danish  garrison, 
already  much  reduced,  was  unequal  to  the  fatigue  of 
this  prolonged  defence,  and  the  king  was  unable  to 
detach  any  further  troojis  to  their  support,  Stralsund, 
with  Christian's  consent,  threw  itself  under  the  protection 
of  the  King  of  Sweden.  The  Danish  commander  left  the 
town  to  make  way  for  a  Swedish  governor,  who  gloriously 
defeflded  it.  Here  Wallenstein's  good  fortune  forsook 
him  ;  and,  for  the  first  time,  his  pride  experienced  the 
humiliation  of  relinquishing  his  prey,  after  the  loss  of 
many  months  and  of  twelve  thousand  men.  The  neces- 
sity to  which  he  reduced  the  town  of  applying  for 
protection  to  Sweden  laid  the  foundation  of  a  close 
alliance  between  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Stralsund, 
which  greatly  facilitated  the  entrance  of  the  Swedes 
into  Germany. 

Hitherto  invariable  success  had  attended  the  arms  of 
the  EmjDeror  and  the  League,  and  Christian  IV.,  defeated 
in  Germany,  had  sought  refuge  in  his  own  island ;  but 
the  Baltic  checked  the  further  j^rogress  of  the  conquerors. 
The  want  of  ships  not  only  stopped  the  pursuit  of  the 
king,  but  endangered  their  previous  acquisitions.  The 
union  of  the  two  northern  monarchs  was  not  to  be 
dreaded,  because,  so  long  as  it  lasted,  it  effectually 
prevented  the  Emperor  and  his  general  from  acquiring  a 


120  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

footing  on  the  Baltic,  or  effecting  a  landing  in  Sweden. 
But  if  they  could  succeed  in  dissolving  this  union,  and 
especially  in  securing  the  friendsliip  of  the  Danish  king, 
they  might  ho2:)e  to  overpower  the  insulated  force  of 
Sweden.  The  dread  of  the  interference  of  foreign 
powers,  the  insubordination  of  the  Protestants  in  his  own 
states,  and  still  more  the  storm  which  was  gradually 
darkening  along  the  whole  of  Protestant  Germany, 
inclined  the  Emperor  to  peace,  which  his  general,  from 
opposite  motives,  was  equally  desirous  to  effect.  Far 
from  wishing  for  a  state  of  things  which  would  reduce 
him  from  the  meridian  of  greatness  and  glory  to  the 
obscurity  of  private  life,  he  only  wished  to  change 
the  theatre  of  war,  and  by  a  partial  peace  to  prolong  the 
general  confusion.  The  friendship  of  Denmark,  whose 
neiglibor  he  had  become  as  Duke  of  Mecklenburgh,  was 
most  important  for  the  success  of  his  ambitious  views ; 
and  he  resolved,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  sovereign's 
interests,  to  secure  its  alliance. 

By  the  treaty  of  Copenhagen,  Christian  IV.,  had  ex- 
pressly engaged  not  to  conclude  a  separate  jDcace  with 
the  Emperor  without  the  consent  of  Sweden.  Notwith- 
standing, Wallen stein's  proposition  was  readily  received 
by  him.  In  a  conference  at  Lubeck  in  1629,  from  which 
Wallenstein,  with  studied  contempt,  excluded  the  Swedish 
ambassadors  who  came  to  intercede  for  Mecklenburgh, 
all  the  conquests  taken  by  the  imperialists  were  restored 
to  the  Danes.  The  conditions  imposed  upon  the  king 
were,  that  he  should  interfere  no  farther  with  the  affairs 
of  Germany  than  was  called  for  by  his  character  of  Duke 
of  Holstein  ;  that  he  should  on  no  pretext  harass  the 
Chapters  of  Lower  Germany,  and  should  leave  the  Dukes 
of  Mecklenbargh  to  their  fate.  By  Christian  himself  had 
these  princes  been  involved  in  the  war  with  the  Emperor  ; 
he  now  sacrificed  them  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  usurper  of 
their  territories.  Among  the  motives  which  had  engaged 
hira  in  a  w.ar  with  the  Emperor,  not  the  least  was  the 
restoration  of  his  relation,  the  Elector  Palatine  —  yet 
the  name  of  that  unfortunate  prince  was  hot  even  men- 
tioned in  the  treaty ;  while  in  one  of  its  articles  the 
legitimacy  of  the  Bavarian  election  wst^  expressly  recog- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  121 

nized.     Thus  meanly  and  ingloriously  did  Christian  IV. 
retire  from  the  field. 

Ferdinand  had  it  now  in  his  power,  for  the  second 
time,   to   secure   the  tranquillity    of    Germany ;    and   it 
depended   solely  on   his   will   whether   the  treaty   with 
Denmark  should  or  should  not  be  the  basis  of  a  general 
peace.     From  every  quarter  arose  the  cry  of  the  unfortu- 
nate,  petitioning   for   an   end  of   their   sufferings;    the 
cruelties  of  his  soldiers,  and  the  rapacity  of  his  generals, 
had  exceeded  all  bounds.     Germany,  laid  w^aste  by  the 
desolating  bands  of  Mansfeld  and  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, and  by  the  still  more  terrible  hordes  of  Tilly  and 
Wallenstein,  lay  exhausted,  bleeding,  wasted,  and  sighing 
for  repose.     An   anxious  desire  for  peace  was  felt  by  all 
conditions,  and  by  the  Emperor  him  self,  involved  as  he 
was  in  a  war  with  France  in  Upper  Italy,  exhausted  by 
his  past   warfare  in  Germany,  and  apprehensive  of  the 
day  of  reckoning  which  was  approaching.     But,  unfortu- 
nately, the  conditions  on  which  alone  the  two  religious 
parties   were  willing   respectively  to   sheath  the   sword 
were  irreconcilable.     The   Roman   Catholics   wished   to 
terminate  the  war  to  their  own  advantage  ;  the   Prot- 
estants   advanced    equal    pretensions.       The    Emperor, 
instead  of  uniting  both  parties  by  a  prudent  moderation, 
sided  with  one ;  and  thus  Germany  was  again  plunged  in 
the  horrors  of  a  bloody  war. 

From  the  very  close  of  the  Bohemian  troubles,  Ferdi- 
nand had  carried  on  a  counter  reformation  in  his  heredi- 
tary dominions,  in  which,  however,  from  regard  to  some 
of  the  Protestant  Estates,  he  proceeded,  at  first,  with 
moderation.  But  the  victories  of  his  generals  iu  Lower 
Germany  encouraged  him  to  throw  off  all  reserve.  Ac- 
cordingly he  had  it  intimated  to  all  the  Protestants  in 
these  dominions  that  they  must  either  abandon  their 
reliG:ion  or  their  native  country,  —  a  bitter  and  dreadful 
altet-native,  which  excited  the  most  violent  commotions 
amono-  liis  Austrian  subjects.  In  the  Palatinate,  immedi- 
ately ^after  the -expulsion  of  Frederick,  the  Protestant 
religion  had  been  su]iprcsscd,  and  its  professors  expelled 
from  the  University  of  Heidelberg. 

All   this   was  but   the  prelude  to  greater  changes.     In 


122  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

the  Electoral  Congress  held  at  Miihlhausen,  the  Roman 
Catholics  had  demanded  of  the  Emperor  that  all  the 
archbishoprics,  bishopries,  mediate  and  immediate,  ab- 
bacies and  monasteries,  which,  since  the  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
had  been  secularized  by  the  Protestants,  should  be 
restored  to  the  church,  in  order  to  indemnify  them  for 
the  losses  and  sufferings  in  the  war.  To  a  Roman 
Catholic  prince  so  zealous  as  Ferdinand  was,  such  a  hint 
was  not  likely  to  be  neglected ;  but  he  still  thought  it 
would  be  premature  to  arouse  the  whole  Protestants  of 
Germany  by  so  decisive  a  step.  Not  a  single  Protestant 
prince  but  would  be  deprived,  by  this  revocation  of  the 
religious  foundations,  of  a  part  of  his  lands  ;  for  where 
these  revenues  had  not  actually  been  diverted  to  secular 
purposes  they  had  been  made  over  to  the  Protestant  church. 
To  this  source  many  princes  owed  the  chief  part  of  their 
revenues  and  importance.  All,  without  exception,  would 
be  irritated  by  this  demand  for  restoration.  The  religious 
treaty  did  not  expressly  deny  their  right  to  these  chapters, 
although  it  did  not  allow  it.  But  a  possession  which  had 
now  been  held  for  nearly  a  century,  the  silence  of  four 
preceding  emperors,  and  the  law  of  equity,  which  gave 
them  an  equal  right  with  the  Roman  Catholics  to  the 
foundations  of  their  common  ancestors,  miglit  be  strongly 
pleaded  by  them  as  a  valid  title.  Besides  the  actual  loss 
of  power  and  authority,  which  the  surrender  of  these 
foundations  would  occasion,  besides  the  inevitable  confu- 
sion which  would  necessarily  attend  it,  one  important 
disadvantage  to  which  it  would  lead,  was,  that  the 
restoration  of  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops  would  increase 
tlie  strength  of  that  party  in  the  Diet  by  so  many  addi- 
tional votes.  Such  grievous  sacrifices  likely  to  fall  on 
the  Protestants  made  the  Emperor  apprehensive  of  a 
formidable  opposition  ;  and  until  the  military  ardor  should 
luive  cooled  in  Germany,  he  had  no  wish  to  provoke  a 
party  formidable  by  its  union,  and  wliich  in  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  had  a  ])owerful  leader.  He  resolved,  therefore, 
to  try  the  experiment  at  first  on  a  small  scale,  in  order  to 
ascertain  how  it  was  likely  to  succeed  on  a  larger  one. 
Accordingly,  some  of  the  free  cities  in  Upper  Germany, 
Mii'l    (he   Duke  of   Wiilemberg,  receivtMl   orders    tu  sue- 


THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAR.  123 

render  to  the  Roman  Catholics  several  of  the  confiscated 
chapters. 

The  state  of  affairs  in  Saxony  enabled  the  Emperor  to 
make  some  bolder  experiments  in  that  quarter.  In  the 
bishojirics  of  Magdeburg  and  Halberstadt  tlic  Protestant 
canons  had  not  hesitated  to  elect  bishops  of  their  own 
religion.  Both  bislioprics,  Avith  the  exception  of  the  town 
of  Magdeburg  itself,  Av^ere  oveiTun  by  the  troops  of 
Wallenstein.  It  happened,  moreover,  that  by  the  death 
of  the  Administi-ator,  Duke  Christian  of  Brunswick,  Hal- 
berstadt was  vacant,  as  was  also  the  Archbishopric  of 
Magdeburg  by  the  deposition  of  Christian  William,  a 
prince  of  the  House  of  Brandenburg.  Ferdinand  took 
advantage  of  the  circumstance  to  restore  the  see  of  Hal- 
berstadt to  a  Roman  Catholic  bishoi^,  and  a  prince  of  his 
own  house.  To  avoid  a  similar  coercion,  the  Chapter  of 
Magdeburg  hastened  to  elect  a  son  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  as  archbishop.  But  the  pope,  who  with  his  arro- 
gated authority  interfered  in  this  matter,  conferred  the 
Archbishopric  of  Magdeburg  also  on  the  Austrian  prince. 
Thus,  with  all  his  pious  zeal  for  religion,  Ferdinand  never 
lost  sight  of  the  interests  of  his  family. 

At  length,  Avhen  the  peace  of  Lubeck  had  delivered  the 
Emperor  from  all  apprehensions  on  the  side  of  Denmark, 
and  the  German  Protestants  seemed  entirely  powerless, 
the  Leaixue  becominsr  louder  and  more  urgent  in  its 
demands,  Ferdinand,  in  1629,  signed  the  Edict  of  Restitu- 
tion (so  famous  by  its  disastrous  consequences),  which 
he  had  previously  laid  before  the  four  Roman  Catholic 
electors  for  their  approbation.  In  the  preamble,  he 
claimed  the  prerogative,  in  right  of  his  imperial  authority, 
to  interpret  the  meaning  of  the  religious  treaty,  tlie  am- 
biguities of  which  had  already  caused  so  many  disputes, 
and  to  decide  as  supreme  arbiter  and  judge  between  the 
contending  j^arties.  This  prerogative  he  founded  upon 
the  practice  of  his  ancestors,  and  its  previous  recognition 
even  by  Protestant  states.  Saxony  had  actually  ac- 
knowledged this  right  of  the  Emperor ;  and  it  now  be- 
came evident  how  deeply  this  court  had  injured  the 
Protestant  cause  by  its  de])(Midence  on  the  House  of  Aus- 
tria.    But  though  the  meaning  of  tlie  religious  treaty  was 


124  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

really  ambiguous,  as  a  century  of  religious  disputes  suf- 
ficiently proved,  yet  for  the  Emperor,  Avho  must  be  either 
a  Protestant  or  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  therefore  an  inter- 
ested party,  to  assume  the  right  of  deciding  between  the 
disputants,  was  clearly  a  violation  of  an  essential  article 
of  the  pacification.  He  could  not  be  judge  in  his  own 
cause  without  reducing  the  liberties  of  the  emj^ire  to  an 
empty  sound. 

And  now,  in  virtue  of  this  usurpation,  Ferdinand  de- 
cided, "  That  every  secularization  of  a  religious  founda- 
tion, mediate  or  immediate,  by  the  Protestants,  subsequent 
to  the  date  of  the  treaty,  was  contrary  to  its  spirit,  and 
must  be  revoked  as  a  breach  of  it."  He  further  decided, 
"That,  by  the  religious  peace,  Catholic  proprietors  of 
estates  were  no  further  bound  to  their  Protestant  subjects 
than  to  allow  them  full  liberty  to  quit  their  territories." 
In  obedience  to  this  decision,  all  unlawful  possessors  of 
benefices  —  the  Protestant  states  in  short  without  excep- 
tion —  were  ordered,  under  pain  of  the  ban  of  the  empire, 
immediately  to  surrender  their  usurped  possessions  to 
the  imperial  commissioners. 

This  sentence  applied  to  no  less  than  two  archbishoprics 
and  twelve  bishoprics,  besides  innumerable  abbacies. 
The  edict  came  like  a  thunderbolt  on  the  whole  of  Prot- 
estant Germany ;  dreadful  even  in  its  immediate  conse- 
quences ;  but  yet  more  so  from  the  further  calamities  it 
seemed  to  threaten.  The  Protestants  were  now  convinced 
that  the  suppression  of  their  religion  had  been  resolved 
on  by  the  Emperor  and  the  League,  and  that  the  over- 
throw of  German  liberty  would  soon  follow.  Their  re- 
monstrances were  unheeded ;  the  commissioners  were 
named,  and  an  army  assembled  to  enforce  obedience. 
The  edict  was  first  put  in  force  in  Augsburg,  where  the 
treaty  was  concluded  ;  the  city  was  again  placed  under 
the  government  of  its  bishop,  and  six  Protestant  churches 
in  the  town  were  closed.  The  Duke  of  Wirtemberg  w^as, 
in  like  manner,  compelled  to  surrender  his  abbacies. 
These  severe  measures,  though  they  alarmed  the  Protest- 
ant states,  were  yet  insufiicient  to  rouse  them  to  an  active 
resistance.  Their  fear  of  the  Emperer  was  too  strong, 
and  many  were  disposed  to  quiet  submission.     The  ho])e 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  125 

of  attaining  their  end  by  gentle  measures  induced  the 
Roman  Catholics  likewise  to  delay  for  a  year  the  execu- 
tion of  the  edict,  and  this  saved  the  Protestants ;  before 
the  end  of  that  jDcriod  the  success  of  Swedish  arms  had 
totally  changed  the  state  of  affairs. 

In  a  Diet  held  at  Ratisbon,  at  which  Ferdinand  was 
present  in  person  (in  1630),  the  necessity  of  taking  some 
measures  for  the  immediate  restoration  of  a  general  peace 
to  Germany,  and  for  the  removal  of  all  grievances,  was 
debated.  The  complaints  of  the  Roman  Catholics  were 
scarcely  less  numerous  than  those  of  the  Protestants, 
althougli  Ferdinand  had  flattered  himself  that  by  the 
Edict  of  Restitution  he  had  secured  the  members  of  the 
League,  and  its  leader  by  the  gift  of  the  electoral  dignity, 
and  the  cession  of  great  part  of  the  Palatinate.  But  the 
good  understanding  between  the  Emperor  and  the  princes 
of  the  League  had  rapidly  declined  since  the  employment 
of  Wallenstein.  Accustomed  to  give  law  to  Germany, 
and  even  to  sway  the  Emperor's  own  destiny,  the  haughty 
Elector  of  Bavaria  now  at  once  saw  himself  supplanted 
by  the  imperial  general,  and  with  that  of  the  League,  his 
own  importance  completely  undermined.  Another  had 
now  stepped  in  to  reap  the  fruits  of  his  victories,  and  to 
bury  his  past  services  in  oblivion.  Wallenstein's  impe- 
rious character,  whose  dearest  triumph  was  in  degrading 
the  authority  of  the  princes,  and  giving  an  odious  latitude 
to  that  of  the  Emperor,  tended  not  a  little  to  augment 
the  irritation  of  the  Elector.  Discontented  with  the 
Emperor,  and  distrustful  of  his  intentions,  he  had  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  France,  which  the  other  members  of 
the  League  were  suspected  of  favoring.  A  fear  of  the 
Emperor's  plans  of  aggrandizement,  and  discontent  with 
existing  evils,  had  extinguished  among  them  all  feelings  of 
gratitude.  Wallenstein's  exactions  had  become  altogether 
intolerable.  Brandenburg  estimated  its  losses  at  twenty, 
Pomerania  at  ten,  Hesse  Cassel  at  seven  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  the  rest  in  proportion.  The  cry  of  redress  was 
loud,  urgent,  and  universal;  all  prejudices  were  hushed; 
Roman  ^  Catholics  and  Protestants  were  alike  on  this 
point.  The  terrified  Emperor  Avas  assailed  on  all  sides 
by  petitions  against  Wallenstein,  and  his  ear  filled  with 


126  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

the  most  fearful  descriptions  of  his  outrages.  Ferdinand 
was  not  naturally  cruel.  If  not  totally  innocent  of  the 
atrocities  which  were  practised  in  Germany  under  the 
shelter  of  his  name,  he  was  ignorant  of  their  extent ;  and 
he  was  not  long  in  yielding  to  the  representation  of  the 
princes,  and  reduced  his  standing  army  by  eighteen 
thousand  cavalry.  While  this  reduction  took  place,  the 
Swedes  were  actively  prepai-ing  an  expedition  into  Ger- 
many, and  the  greater  part  of  the  disbanded  Imperialists 
enlisted  under  their  banners. 

The  Emperor's  concessions  only  encouraged  the  Elector 
of  Bavaria  to  bolder  demands.  So  long  as  the  Duke  of 
Friedland  retained  the  supreme  command  his  triumph 
over  the  Emperor  was  incomplete.  The  princes  of  the 
League  were  meditating  a  severe  revenge  on  Wallenstein 
for  that  haughtiness  Avith  which  he  had  treated  them  all 
alike.  His  dismissal  was  demanded  by  the  whole  college 
of  electors,  and  even  by  Spain,  Avith  a  degree  of  unanim- 
ity and  urgency  which  astonished  the  Emperor.  The 
anxiety  with  which  Wallenstein's  enemies  pressed  for  his 
dismissal  ought  to  have  convinced  the  Emperor  of  the 
importance  of  his  sei'vices.  Wallenstein,  informed  of  the 
cabals  which  were  forming  against  him  in  Ratisbon,  lost 
no  time  in  opening  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor  to  the  real 
views  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  He  himself  appeared  in 
Ratisbon,  with  a  pomp  which  threw  his  master  into  the 
shade,  and  inci'eased  the  hatred  of  his  opponents. 

Long  was  the  Emperor  undecided.  Tlie  sacrifice  de- 
manded was  a  painful  one.  To  the  Duke  of  Friedland 
alone  he  owed  his  preponderance ;  he  felt  how  much  he 
would  lose  in  yielding  him  to  the  indignation  of  the 
princes.  But  at  this  moment,  unfortunately,  he  Avas  un- 
der the  necessity  of  conciliating  the  Electors.  His  son 
Ferdinand  had  already  been  chosen  King  of  Hungary, 
and  he  Avas  endeavoring  to  procure  his  election  as  his 
successor  in  the  empire.  For  this  purpose  the  support 
of  Maximilian  was  indispensable.  This  considei-ation  was 
the  Aveightiest,  and  to  oblige  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  he 
scrupled  not  to  sacrifice  his  most  valuable  servant. 

At  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  there  were  present  ambassa- 
dors from  France,  empowered  to  adjust  the  differences 


THE   THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  127 

which  seemed  to  menace  a  war  in  Italy  between  the  Em- 
peror and  their  sovereign.  Vincent,  Duke  of  Mantua 
and  Montferrat,  dying  without  issue,  his  next  relation, 
Charles  Duke  of  Nevers,  had  taken  possession  of  this 
inheritance,  without  doing  homage  to  the  Eniperior  as 
liege  lord  of  the  principality.  Encouraged  by  the  support 
of  France  and  Venice,  he  refused  to  surrender  these 
territories  into  the  hands  of  the  imperial  commissioners, 
until  his  title  to  them  should  be  decided.  On  the  other 
hand,  Ferdinand  had  taken  up  arms  at  the  instigation  of 
the  Spaniards,  to  whom,  as  possessors  of  Milan,  the  near 
neighborhood  of  a  vassal  of  France  was  peculiarly  alarm- 
ing, and  who  welcomed  this  prospect  of  making,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Emperor,  additional  conquests  in  Italy. 
In  spite  of  all  the  exertions  of  Pope  Urban  VIII.  to  avert 
a  war  in  that  country,  Ferdinand  marched  a  German 
army  across  the  Alps,  and  threw  the  Italian  states  into  a 
general  consternation.  His  arms  had  been  successful 
throughout  Germany,  and  exaggerated  fears  revived  the 
olden  apprehension  of  Austria's  projects  of  universal 
monarchy.  All  the  horrors  of  the  German  war  now 
spread  like  a  deluge  over  those  favored  countries  which 
the  Po  waters  ;  Mantua  was  taken  by  storm,  and  the  sur- 
rounding districts  given  up  to  the  ravages  of  a  lawless 
soldiery.  The  curse  of  Italy  was  thus  added  to  the  male- 
dictions upon  the  Emperor  which  resounded  through  Ger- 
many ;  and  even  in  the  Roman  Conclave,  silent  prayers 
were  offered  for  the  success  of  the  Protestant  arras. 

Alarmed  by  the  universal  hatred  which  this  Italian 
campaign  had  drawn  upon  him,  and  wearied  out  by  the 
urgent  remonstrances  of  the  Electors,  who  zealously  sup- 
ported the  application  of  the  French  ambassador,  the 
Emperor  promised  the  investiture  to  the  new  Duke  of 
Mantua. 

This  important  service  on  the  part  of  Bavaria  of  course 
required  an  equivalent  from  France.  The  adjustment  of 
the  treaty  gave  the  envoys  of  Richelieu,  during  their 
residence  in  Ratisbon,  the  desired  opportunity  of  entang- 
ling the  Emperor  in  dangerous  intrigues,  of  inflaming  the 
discontented  princes  of  the  League  still  more  strongly 
against  him,  and  of  turning  to  his  disadvantage  all  the 


128  THE   TmRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

transactions  of  the  Diet.  For  this  purpose  Richelieu  had 
chosen  an  admirable  instrument  in  Father  Joseph,  a 
Capuchin  friar,  who  accompanied  the  ambassadors  with- 
out exciting  the  least  suspicion.  One  of  his  principal 
instructions  was  assiduously  to  bring  about  the  dismissal 
of  Wallenstein.  With  the  general  who  had  led  it  to  vic- 
tory the  army  of  Austria  would  lose  its  principal  strength; 
many  armies  could  not  compensate  for  the  loss  of  this  in- 
dividual. It  would  therefore  be  a  master-stroke  of  policy, 
at  the  very  moment  when  a  victorious  monarch,  the  ab- 
solute master  of  his  operations,  was  arming  against  the 
Eiuperor,  to  remove  from  the  head  of  the  imperial  armies 
the  only  general  who,  by  ability  and  military  experience, 
was  able  to  cope  with  the  French  king.  Father  Joseph,  in 
the  interests  of  Bavaria,  undertook  to  overcome  the  irreso- 
lution of  the  Emperor,  who  was  now  in  a  manner  besieged 
by  the  Spaniards  and  the  Electoral  Council.  "  It  would 
be  expedient,"  he  thought,  "  to  gratify  the  Electors  on 
this  occasion,  and  thereby  facilitate  his  son's  election  to 
the  Roman  Crown.  This  object  once  gained  Wallen- 
stein could  at  any  time  resume  his  former  station."  The 
artful  Capuchin  was  too  sure  of  his  man  to  touch  upon 
this  ground  of  consolation. 

The  voice  of  a  monk  was  to  Ferdinand  II.  the  voice  of 
God.  "Nothing  on  earth,"  writes  liis  own  confessor, 
"  was  more  sacred  in  his  eyes  than  a  priest.  If  it  could 
happen,  he  used  to  say,  that  an  angel  and  a  Regular  were 
to  meet  him  at  the  same  time  and  place,  the  Regular 
should  receive  his  first,  and  the  angel  his  second  obei- 
sance."    Wallenstein's  dismissal  was  determined  upon. 

In  return  for  this  pious  concession,  the  Capuchin  dex- 
terously counteracted  the  Emperor's  scheme  to  procure 
for  the  King  of  Hungary  the  further  dignity  of  King  of 
the  Romans.  In  an  express  clause  of  the  treaty  just  con- 
cluded, the  French  ministers  engaged  in  the  name  of 
their  sovereign  to  observe  a  complete  neutrality  between 
the  Emperor  and  his  enemies;  while  at  the  same  time, 
Richelieu  was  actually  negotiating  with  the  Kmg  of 
Sweden  to  declare  war,  and  pressing  upon  him  the  alli- 
ance of  his  master.  The  latter,  indeed,  disavowed  the 
lie  as  soon  as  it  had  served  its  purpose,  and  Father  Joseph, 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR.  129 

confined  to  a  convent,  must  atone  for  the  alleged  offence 
of  exceeding  his  instructions,  Ferdinand  perceived,  when 
too  late,  that  he  had  been  imposed  upon.  "  A  wicked 
Capuchin,"  he  was  heard  to  say,  "  has  disarmed  me  with 
his  rosary,  and  thrust  nothing  less  than  six  electoral 
crowns  into  his  cowl." 

Artifice  and  trickery  thus  triumphed  over  the  Emperor 
at  the  moment  when  he  was  believed  to  be  omnipotent 
in  Germany,  and  actually  was  so  in  the  field.  With  the 
loss  of  eighteen  thousand  men,  and  of  a  general  who  alone 
was  worth  whole  armies,  he  left  Ratisbon  without  gain- 
ing the  end  for  which  he  had  made  such  sacrifices.  Be- 
fore the  Swedes  had  vanquished  him  in  the  field,  Maxi- 
milian of  Bavaria  and  Father  Joseph  had  given  him  a 
mortal  blow.  At  this  memorable  Diet  at  Ratisbon  the 
war  with  Sweden  was  resolved  upon,  and  that  of  Mantua 
terminated.  Vainly  had  the  princes  present  at  it  inter- 
ceded for  the  Dukes  of  Mecklenburgh  ;  and  equally  fruit- 
less had  been  an  application  by  the^English  ambassadors 
for  a  pension  to  the  Palatine  Frederick, 

Wallenstein  was  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  nearly 
a  hundred  thousand  men  who  adored  him  when^  the 
sentence  of  his  dismissal  arrived.  Most  of  the  officers 
were  his  creatures :  —  with  the  common  soldiers  his  hint 
was  law.  His  ambition  was  boundless,  his  pride  indomi- 
table, his  imperious  spirit  could  not  brook  an  injury 
unavenged.  One  moment  would  now  precipitate  _  him 
from  the  height  of  grandeur  into  the  obscurity  of  a  private 
station.  To  execute  such  a  sentence  upon  such  a  delin- 
quent seemed  to  require  more  address  than  it  cost  to 
obtain  it  from  the  judge.  Accordingly,  two  of  Wal- 
lenstein's  most  intimate  friends  were  selected  as  heralds 
of  these  evil  tidings,  and  instructed  to  soften  them  as 
much  as  possible  b"y  flattering  assurances  of  the  continu- 
ance of  the  Emperor's  favor. 

Wallenstein  had  ascertained  the  purport  of  their 
message  before  the  imperial  ambassadors  arrived.  _He 
had  time  to  collect  himself,  and  his  countenance  exhibited 
an  external  calmness,  while  grief  and  rage  were  storming 
in  his  bosom.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  obey.  The 
Emperor's  decision  had  taken  him  by  surprise  before 


130  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

circumstances  were  ripe,  or  his  preparations  complete,  for 
the  bold  measures  he  had  contemplated.  His  extensive 
estates  were  scattered  over  Bohemia  and  Moravia ;  and 
by  their  confiscation  the  Emperor  might  at  once  destroy 
the  sinews  of  his  power.  He  looked,  therefore,  to  the 
future  for  revenge ;  and  in  this  hope  he  was  encouraged 
by  the  '  predictions  of  an  Italian  astrologer,  who  led 
his  imperious  spirit  like  a  child  in  leading-strings.  Seni 
had  read  in  the  stars  that  his  master's  brilliant  career 
was  not  yet  ended ;  and  that  bright  and  glorious  pros- 
pects still  awaited  him.  It  was,  indeed,  unnecessary  to 
consult  the  stars  to  foretell  that  an  enemy,  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  would  ere  long  render  indispensable  the  services 
of  such  a  general  as  Wallenstein. 

"  The  Emperor  is  betrayed,"  said  "Wallenstein  to  the 
messengers ;  "  I  pity  but  forgive  him.  It  is  plain  that 
the  grasping  spirit  of  the  Bavarian  dictates  to  him.  I 
grieve  that,  with  so  much  weakness,  he  has  sacrificed  me, 
but  I  will  obey."  He  dismissed  the  emissaries  with 
princely  presents ;  and  in  an  humble  letter  besought  the 
continuance  of  the  Emperor's  favor,  and  of  the  dignities 
he  had  bestowed  upon  him. 

The  murmurs  of  the  army  were  universal  on  hearing 
of  the  dismissal  of  their  general ;  and  the  greater  part  of 
his  officers  immediately  quitted  the  imperial  service. 
Many  followed  him  to  his  estates  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia ; 
others  he  attached  to  his  interests  by  pensions,  in  order 
to  command  their  services  when  the  opportunity  should 
offer. 

But  repose  was  the  last  thing  that  Wallenstein  contem- 
plated when  he  returned  to  private  life.  In  his  retreat 
he  surrounded  himself  with  a  regal  pomp  which  seemed 
to  mock  the  sentence  of  degradation.  Six  gates  led  to 
the  palace  he  inhabited  in  Prague,  and  a  hundred  houses 
were  pulled  down  to  make  way  for  his  courtyard.  Sim- 
ilar palaces  were  built  on  his  other  numerous  estates. 
Gentlemen  of  the  noblest  houses  contended  for  the 
honor  of  serving  him,  and  even  imperial  chamberlains 
resigned  the  golden  key  to  the  Emperor  to  fill  a  similar 
office  under  Wallenstein.  He  maintained  sixtv  pages, 
who  were  instructed  by  the  ablest  masters.     His  ante- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  131 

chamber  was  protected  by  fifty  life-guards.  His  table 
never  consisted  of  less  than  one  hundred  covers,  and  his 
seneschal  was  a  person  of  distinction.  When  he  travelled, 
his  baggage  and  suite  accompanied  him  in  a  hundred 
wagons,  drawn  by  six  or  four  horses;  his  court  followed 
in  sixty  carriages,  attended  by  fifty  led  horses.  The 
pomp  of  his  liveries,  the  splendor  of  his  equipages,  and 
the  decorations  of  his  apartments,  were  in  keeping  with 
all  the  rest.  Six  barons  and  as  many  knights  were  in 
constant  attendance  about  his  person,  and  ready  to 
execute  his  slightest  order.  Twelve  patrols  went  their 
rounds  about  his  palace  to  prevent  any  disturbance. 
His  busy  genius  required  silence.  The  noise  of  coaches 
was  to  be  kept  away  from  his  residence,  and  the  streets 
leading  to  it  were  frequently  blocked  up  witli  chains. 
His  own  circle  was  as  silent  as  the  approaches  to  his 
palace  ;  dark,  reserved  and  impenetrable,  he  was  more 
sparing  of  his  words  than  of  his  gifts ;  while  the  little 
that  he  spoke  was  harsh  and  imperious.  He  never 
smiled,  and  the  coldness  of  his  temperament  was  proof 
against  sensual  seductions.  Ever  occupied  with  grand 
schemes,  he  despised  all  those  idle  amusements  in  which 
so  many  waste  their  lives.  The  correspondence  he  kept 
up  with  the  whole  of  Europe  was  chiefly  managed  by 
himself,  and,  that  as  little  as  possible  might  be  trusted  to 
the  silence  of  others,  most  of  the  letters  were  written  by 
his  own  hand.  He  was  a  man  of  large  stature,  thin,  of  a 
sallow  complexion,  with  short  red  hair,  and  small  spark- 
ling eyes.  A  gloomy  and  forbidding  seriousness  sat 
upon  his  brow ;  and  his  magnificent  presents  alone 
retained  the  trembling  crowd  of  his  dependents. 

In  this  stately  obscurity  did  Wallenstein  silently  but 
not  inactively  await  the  hour  of  revenge.  The  victorious 
career  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  soon  gave  him  a  presenti- 
ment of  its  approach.  Not  one  of  his  lofty  schemes  had 
been  abandoned ;  and  the  Emperor's  ingratitude  had 
loosened  the  curb  of  his  ambition.  The  dazzling  splendor 
of  his  private  life  bespoke  high-soaring  projects;  and, 
lavish  as  a  king,  he  seemed  already  to  reckon  among 
his  certain  possessions  those  which  he  contemplated 
with  hope. 


132  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    AVAR. 

After  Wallenstein's  dismissal,  and  the  invasion  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  a  new  generalissimo  was  to  be 
appointed ;  and  it  now  appeared  advisable  to  unite  both 
the  imperial  army  and  that  of  the  League  under  one 
general.  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  sought  this  appointment, 
which  would  have  enabled  him  to  dictate  to  the  Emperor, 
who,  from  a  conviction  of  this,  wished  to  procure  the 
command  for  his  eldest  son,  the  King  of  Hungary.  At 
last,  in  order  to  avoid  offence  to  either  of  the  competi- 
tors, the  appointment  was  given  to  Tilly,  who  now 
exchanged  the  Bavarian  for  the  Austrian  service.  The 
imperial  army  in  Germany,  after  the  retirement  of  Wal- 
lenstein,  amounted  to  about  forty  thousand  men  ;  that  of 
the  League  to  nearly  the  same  number,  both  commanded 
by  excellent  officers,  trained  by  the  experience  of  several 
campaigns,  and  proud  of  a  long  series  of  victories.  With 
such  a  force  little  apprehension  was  felt  at  the  invasion 
of  the  King  of  Sweden,  and  the  less  so  as  it  commanded 
both  Pomerania  and  Mecklenburgh,  the  only  countries 
through  which  he  could  enter  Germanv. 

After  the  unsuccessful  attempt  of  the  King  of  Denmark 
to  check  the  Emperor's  progress,  Gustavus  Adolphus  was 
the  only  prince  in  Europe  from  whom  oppressed  liberty 
could  look  for  protection  —  the  only  one  who,  while  he 
was  personally  qualified  to  conduct  such  an  enterprise, 
had  both  political  motives  to  recommend  and  wrongs  to 

i'ustify  it.  Before  the  commencement  of  the  war  in 
jower  Saxony,  important  political  interests  induced  him, 
as  well  as  the  King  of  Denmark,  to  offer  his  services  and 
his  army  for  the  defence  of  Germany;  but  the  offer  of 
the  latter  had,  to  his  own  misfortune,  been  preferred. 
Since  that  time  Wall^^nstein  and  the  Emperor  had 
adopted  measures  which  must  have  been  equally  offensive 
to  him  as  a  man  and  as  a  king.  Iniporial  ti'oops  had 
been  despatched  to  the  aid  of  the  Polish  king,  Sigismund, 
to  defend  Prussia  against  the  Swedes.  When  the  king 
complained  to  Wallenstein  for  this  act  of  liostility,  he 
received  for  answer,  "The  Emperor  has  more  soldiers 
than  he  wants  for  himself,  he  must  help  his  friends." 
The  Swedish  ambassadors  liad  been  insolently  ordered 
by   Wallenstein   to    withdraw   from   the   conference    at 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  133 

Lubeck  ;  and  when,  unawed  by  this  command,  they  were 
courageous  enough  to  remain,  contrary  to  the  law  of 
nations,  he  had  threatened  them  with  violence.  Fer- 
dinand had  also  insulted  the  Swedish  flag,  and  intercepted 
the  king's  despatches  to  Transylvania.  He  also  threw 
every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  peace  betwixt  Poland  and 
Sweden,  supported  the  pretensions  of  Sigismund  to  the 
Swedish  throne,  and  denied  the  right  of  Gustavus  to  the 
title  of  king.  Deigning  no  regard  to  the  repeated  remon- 
strances of  Gustavus,  he  rather  aggravated  the  offence 
by  new  grievances  than  acceded  the  required  satis- 
faction. 

So  many  personal  motives,  supported  by  important 
considerations,  both  of  policy  and  religion,  and  seconded 
by  pressing  invitations  from  Germany,  had  their  full 
weight  with  a  prince,  who  was  naturally  the  more  jealous 
of  his  royal  prerogative  the  more  it  Avas  questioned  ;  who 
was  flattered  by  the  glory  he  hoped  to  gain  as  Protector 
of  the  Oppressed,  and  passionately  loved  war  as  the 
element  of  his  genius.  But  until  a  truce  or  peace  with 
Poland  should  set  his  hands  free,  a  new  and  dangerous 
war  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 

Cardinal  Richelieu  had  the  merit  of  effecting  this  truce 
with  Poland.  This  great  statesman,  who  guided  the 
helm  of  Europe,  while  in  France  he  repressed  the  rage 
of  faction  and  the  insolence  of  the  nobles,  pursued 
steadily,  amidst  the  cares  of  a  stormy  administration,  his 
plan  of  lowering  the  ascendancy  of  the  House  of  Austria. 
But  circumstances  opposed  considerable  obstacles  to  the 
execution  of  his  designs ;  and  even  the  greatest  minds 
cannot,  with  impunity,  defy  the  prejudices  of  the  age. 
The  minister  of  a  Roman  Catholic  king,  and  a  Cardinal, 
he  was  prevented  by  the  purple  he  bore  from  joining  the 
enemies  of  that  church  in  an  open  attack  on  a  power 
which  had  the  address  to  sanctify  its  ambitious  encroach- 
ments under  the  name  of  religion.  The  external  defer- 
ence which  Richelieu  was  obliged  to  pay  to  the  narrow 
views  of  his  contemporaries  limited  his  exertions  to  secret 
negotiations,  by  which  he  endeavored  to  gain  the  hand 
of  others  to  accomplish  the  enlightened  projects  of  his  own 
mind.    After  a  fruitless  attempt  to  prevent  the  peace 


134  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

between  Denmark  and  the  Emperor,  he  had  recourse  to 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  hero  of  his  age.  No  exertion 
was  spared  to  bring  this  monarch  to  a  favorable  decision, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  facilitate  the  execution  of  it. 
Charnasse,  an  unsuspected  agent  of  the  Cardinal,  pro- 
ceeded to  Polish  Prussia,  where  Gustavus  Adolphus  was 
conducting  the  war  against  Sigismund,  and  alternately- 
visited  these  princes,  in  order  to  persuade  them  to  a 
truce  or  peace.  Gustavus  had  been  long  inclined  to  it, 
and  the  French  minister  succeeded  at  last  in  opening  the 
eyes  of  Sigismund  to  his  true  interests,  and  to  the  de- 
ceitful policy  of  the  Emperor.  A  truce  for  six  years  was 
agreed  on,  Gustavus  being  allowed  to  retain  all  his  con- 
quests. This  treaty  gave  him  also  what  he  had  so  long 
desired,  the  liberty  of  directing  his  arms  against  the 
Emperor.  For  this  the  French  ambassador  offered  him 
the  alliance  of  his  sovereign  and  considerable  subsidies. 
But  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  justly  apprehensive  lest  the 
acceptance  of  the  assistance  should  make  him  dependent 
upon  France,  and  fetter  him  in  his  career  of  conquests, 
while  an  alliance  with  a  Roman  Catholic  power  might 
excite  distrust  among  the  Protestants. 

If  the  war  was  just  and  necessary,  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  was  undertaken  were  not  less  promising. 
The  name  of  the  Emperor,  it  is  true,  was  formidable,  his 
resources  inexhaustible,  his  power  hitherto  invincible. 
So  dangerous  a  contest  would  have  dismayed  any  other 
than  Gustavus.  He  saw  all  the  obstacles  and  dangers 
which  opposed  his  undertaking,  but  he  knew  also  the 
means  by  which,  as  he  hoped,  they  might  be  conquered. 
His  army,  though  not  numerous,  was  well  disciplined, 
inured  to  hardship  by  a  severe  climate  and  campaigns, 
and  trained  to  victory  in  the  war  with  Poland.  Sweden, 
though  poor  in  men  and  money,  and  overtaxed  by  an 
eight  years'  war,  was  devoted  to  its  monarch  with  an 
enthusiasm  which  assured  him  of  the  ready  support  of 
his  subjects.  In  Germany  the  name  of  the  Emperor 
was  at  least  as  much  hated  as  feared.  The  Protestant 
princes  only  awaited  the  arrival  of  a  deliverer  to  throw 
off  his  intolerable  yoke,  and  openly  declare  for  the 
Swedes.     Even  the  Roman  Catholic  states  would  welcome 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  135 

an  antagonist  to  the  Emperor,  whose  opposition  mio-ht 
control  his  overwhelming  influence.  The  first  victory 
gained  on  German  ground  would  be  decisive.  It  would 
encourage  those  princes  who  still  hesitated  to  declare 
themselves,  strengthen  the  cause  of  his  adherents,  aug- 
ment his  troops,  and  open  resources  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  campaign.  If  the  greater  part  of  the  German 
states  were  improverished  by  oppression  the  flourishing 
Hanse  towns  had  escaped,  and  they  could  not  hesitate, 
by  a  small  voluntary  sacrifice,  to  avert  the  general  ruin. 
As  the  imperialists  should  be  driven  from  the  different 
provinces,  their  armies  would  diminish,  since  they  were 
subsisting  on  the  countries  in  which  they  were  encamped. 
The  strength,  too,  of  the  Emperor  had  been  lessened  by 
ill-timed  detachments  to  Italy  and  the  Netherlands ; 
while  Spain  weakened,  by  the  loss  of  the  Manila  galleons, 
and  engaged  in  a  serious  war  in  the  Netherlands,  could 
afford  him  little  support.  Great  Britian,  on  the  other 
hand,  gave  the  King  of  Sweden  hope  of  considerable 
subsidies;  and  France,  now  at  peace  with  itself,  came 
forward  with  the  most  favorable  offers. 

But  the  strongest  pledge  for  the  success  of  his  under- 
taking Gustavus  found — in  himself.  Prudence  de- 
manded that  he  should  embrace  all  the  foreign  assistance 
he  could  in  oi-der  to  guard  his  enterprise  from  the  impu- 
tation of  rashness  ;  but  all  his  confidence  and  courage  were 
entirely  derived  from  himself.  He  was  indisputably  the 
greatest  general  of  his  age,  and  the  bravest  soldier  in  the 
army  which  he  had  formed.  Familiar  with  the  tactics 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  he  had  discovered  a  more  effective 
system  of  warfare,  which  was  adopted  as  a  model  by  the 
most  eminent  commanders  of  subsequent  times.  He 
reduced  the  unwieldy  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  rendered 
their  movements  more  light  and  rapid  ;  and,  with  the 
same  view,  he  widened  the  intervals  between  his  bat- 
talions. Instead  of  the  usual  array  in  a  single  line, 
he  disposed  his  forces  in  two  lines,  that  the  second  might 
advance  in  the  event  of  the  first  giving  way. 

He  made  up  for  his  want  of  cavalry  by  placing  infantry 
among  the  horse ;  a  practice  which  frequently  decided 
the   victory.     Europe   first  learned  from  him  the  impor- 


136  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

tance  of  infantry.  All  Germany  was  astonished  at  the 
strict  discipline  which,  at  the  first,  so  creditably  distin- 
guished the  Swedish  army  within  their  territories;  all 
disorders  were  punished  with  the  utmost  severity,  partic- 
ularly impiety,  theft,  gambling,  and  duelling.  The 
Swedish  articles  of  war  enforced  frugality.  In  the  camp, 
the  King's  tent  not  excepted,  neither  silver  nor  gold  was 
to  be  seen.  The  general's  eye  looked  as  vigilantly  to  the 
morals  as  to  the  martial  bravery  of  his  soldiers ;  every 
regiment  was  ordered  to  form  round  its  chaplain  for 
morning  and  evening  prayers.  In  all  these  points  the 
lawgiver  was  also  an  example.  A  sincere  and  ardent 
piety  exalted  his  courage.  Equally  free  from  the  coarse 
infidelity  which  leaves  the  passions  of  the  barbarian  with- 
out a  control,  —  and  from  the  grovelling  superstition  of 
Ferdinand,  who  humbled  himself  to  the  dust  before  the 
Supreme  Being,  while  he  haughtily  trampled  on  his 
fellow-creature — in  the  height  of  his  success  he  was  ever 
a  man  and  a  Christian  —  in  the  height  of  his  devotion,  a 
king  and  hero.  The  hardships  of  war  he  shared  with  the 
meanest  soldier  in  his  army ;  maintained  a  calm  serenity 
amidst  the  hottest  fury  of  battle ;  his  glance  was  omni- 
present, and  he  intrepidly  forgot  the  danger  while  he 
exposed  himself  to  the  greatest  peril.  His  natural 
courage,  indeed,  too  often  made  him  forget  the  duty  of  a 
general ;  and  the  life  of  a  king  ended  in  the  death  of  a 
common  soldier.  But  such  a  leader  was  followed  to 
victory  alike  by  the  coward  and  the  brave,  and  his  eagle 
glance  marked  every  heroic  deed  which  his  example  had 
inspired.  The  fame  of  their  sovereign  excited  in  the 
nation  an  enthusiastic  sense  of  their  own  importance ; 
proud  of  their  king,  the  peasant  in  Finland  and  Gothland 
joyfully  contributed  his  pittance;  the  soldier  willingly 
shed  his  blood  ;  and  the  lofty  energy  which  his  single 
mind  had  imparted  to  the  nation  long  survived  its 
creator. 

The  necessity  of  the  war  was  acknowledged,  but  the 
best  plan  of  conducting  it  was  a  matter  of  much  ques- 
tion. Even  to  the  bold  Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  an  offen- 
sive war  appeared  too  daring  a  measure ;  the  resources  of 
bis  poor  and  conscientious  master  appeared  to  him  too 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  137 

slender  to  compete  with  those  of  a  despotic  sovereign 
who  held  all  Germany  at  his  command.  But  the  minis- 
ister's  timid  scruples  were  overruled  by  the  hero's  pene- 
trating prudence.  "  If  we  await  the  enemy  in  Sweden," 
said  Gustavus,  "  in  the  event  of  a  defeat  everything 
would  be  lost ;  by  a  fortunate  commencement  in  Ger- 
many everything  would  be  gained.  The  sea  is  wide,  and 
we  have  a  long  line  of  coast  in  Sweden  to  defend.  If 
the  enemy's  fleet  should  escape  us,  or  our  own  be  de- 
feated, it  would,  in  either  case,  be  impossible  to  prevent 
the  enemy's  landing.  Everything  depends  on  the  reten- 
tion of  Stralsund.  So  long  as  this  harbor  is  open  to  us 
we  shall  both  command  the  Baltic  and  secure  a  retreat 
from  Germany.  But  to  protect  this  port  we  must  not 
remain  in  Sweden,  but  advance  at  once  into  Pomerania. 
Let  us  talk  no  more,  then,  of  a  defensive  war,  by  which 
we  should  sacrifice  our  greatest  advantages.  Sweden 
must  not  be  doomed  to  behold  a  hostile  banner ;  if  we 
are  vanquished  in  Germany,  it  will  be  time  enough  to 
follow  your  plan." 

Gustavus  resolved  to  cross  the  Baltic  and  attack  the 
Emperor.  His  preparations  were  made  with  the  utmost 
expedition,  and  his  precautionary  measures  were  not  less 
prudent  than  the  resolution  itself  was  bold  and  magnani- 
mous. Before  engaging  in  so  distant  a  war  it  was  neces- 
sary to  secure  Sweden  against  its  neighbors.  At  a  per- 
sonal interview  with  the  King  of  Denmark  at  Markaroed 
Gustavus  assured  himself  of  the  friendship  of  that  mon- 
arch ;  his  frontier  on  the  side  of  Moscow  was  well  guarded; 
Poland  might  be  held  in  check  from  Germany,  if  it 
betrayed  any  design  of  infringing  the  truce.  Falken- 
berg,  a  Swedish  ambassador,  who  visited  the  courts  of 
Holland  and  Germany,  obtained  the  most  flattering 
promises  from  several  Protestant  princes,  though  none  of 
them  yet  possessed  courage  or  self-devotion  enough  to 
enter  into  a  formal  alliance  with  him.  Lubeck  and 
Hamburg  engaged  to  advance  him  money,  and  to  accept 
Swedish  copper  in  return.  Emissaries  were  also  de- 
spatched to  the  Prince  of  Transylvania  to  excite  that 
implacable  enemy  of  Austria  to  arms. 

In  the  meantime  Swedish  levies  were  made  in  Ger- 


138  THE    TIIIKTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

many  and  the  Netherlands,  the  regiments  increased  to 
their  full  complement,  new  ones  raised,  transports  pro- 
vided, a  fleet  titted  out,  provisions,  military  stores,  and 
money  collected.  Thirty  ships-of-war  were  in  a  short 
time  prepared,  fifteen  thousand  men  equipped,  and  two 
hundred  transports  Avere  ready  to  convey  them  across 
the  Baltic.  A  greater  force  Gustavus  Adolphus  was 
unwilling  to  carry  into  Germany,  and  even  the  mainte- 
nance of  this  exceeded  the  revenues  of  his  kingdom.  But 
liowever  small  his  army,  it  was  admirable  in  all  points  of 
discipline,  courage,  and  experience,  and  might  serve  as 
the  nucleus  of  a  more  powerful  armament  if  it  once 
gained  the  German  frontier  and  its  first  attempts  were 
attended  with  success.  Oxenstiern,  at  once  general  and 
chancellor,  was  posted  with  ten  thousand  men  in  Prussia 
to  protect  that  province  against  Poland.  Some  regular 
troops,  and  a  considerable  body  of  militia,  which  served 
as  a  nursery  for  the  main  body,  remained  in  Sweden  as  a 
defence  against  a  sudden  invasion  by  any  treacherous 
neighbor. 

These  were  the  measures  taken  for  the  external  de- 
fence of  the  kingdom.  Its  internal  administration  Avas 
provided  for  with  equal  care.  The  government  was 
entrusted  to  the  Council  of  State,  and  the  finances  to  the 
Palatine  John  Casimir,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  King, 
while  his  wife,  tenderly  as  he  was  attached  to  her,  was 
excluded  from  all  share  in  the  government,  for  which  her 
limited  talents  incapacitated  her.  He  set  his  house  in 
order  like  a  dying  man.  On  the  20th  May,  1630,  when 
all  his  measures  were  arranged,  and  all  Avas  ready  for  liis 
departure,  the  King  appeared  in  the  Diet  at  Stockholm 
to  bid  the  States  a  solemn  farewell.  Taking  in  his  arms 
his  daughter  Christina,  then  only  four  years  old,  who,  in 
the  cradle  had  been  acknowledged  as  his  successor,  he 
presented  her  to  the  States  as  the  future  sovereign, 
exacted  from  them  a  renewal  of  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  her,  in  case  he  should  never  more  return,  and  then 
read  the  ordinances  for  the  government  of  the  kingdom 
during  liis  absence  or  the  minority  of  his  daughter. 
The  whole  assembly  was  dissolved  in  tears,  and  the 
King  himself   was   some   time   before   he  could    attain 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  139 

sufficient  composure  to  deliver  his  farewell  address  to 
the  States. 

"  Not  lightly  or  wantonly,"  said  he,  "  am  I  about  to 
involve  myself  and  you  in  this  new  and  dangerous  war ; 
God  is  my  witness  that  I  do  not  fight  to  gratify  my  own 
ambition.  But  the  Emj^eror  has  wronged  me  most 
sliamefully  in  the  person  of  my  ambassadors.  He  lias 
supported  my  enemies,  persecuted  my  friends  and  breth- 
ren, trampled  my  religion  in  the  dust,  and  even  stretched 
his  revengeful  arm  against  my  crown.  The  oppressed 
states  of  "Germany  call  loudly  for  aid,  which,  by  God's 
help,  we  will  give  them. 

"  I  am  fully  sensible  of  the  dangers  to  which  my  life 
will  be  exposed.  I  have  never  yet  shrunk  from  them, 
nor  is  it  likely  that  I  shall  escape  them  all.  Hitherto, 
Providence  has  wonderfully  protected  me,  but  I  shall  at 
last  fall  in  defence  of  my  country.  I  commend  you  to 
the  protection  of  Heaven.  Be  just,  be  conscientious,  act 
uprightly,  and  we  shall  meet  again  in  eternity. 

"To  you,  my  Councillors  of  State,  I  address  myself 
first.  May  God  enlighten  you  and  fill  you  with  wisdom 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  my  people.  You,  too,  my  brave 
nobles,  I  commend  to  the  divine  protection.  Continue 
to  prove  yourselves  the  worthy  successors  of  those  Gothic 
heroes  whose  bravery  humbled  to  the  dust  the  pride  of 
ancient  Rome.  To  you,  ministers  of  religion,  I  recom- 
mend moderation  and  unity ;  be  yourselves  examples  of 
the  virtues  which  you  preach,  and  abuse  not  your  influ- 
ence over  the  minds  of  my  people.  On  you,  deputies  of 
the  burgesses,  and  the  peasantry,  I  entreat  the  blessing 
of  heaven;  may  your  industry  be  rewarded  by  a  prosper- 
ous harvest;  your  stores  plenteously  filled,  and  may  you 
be  crowned  abundantly  with  all  the  blessings  of  this  life. 
For  the  prosperity  of  all  my  subjects,  absent  and  pres- 
ent, I  offer  my  warmest  prayers  to  Heaven,  I  bid  you 
all  a  sincere,  it  may  be,  an  eternal  farewell." 

The  embarkation  of  the  troops  took  place  at  Elfskna- 
ben,  Avhere  the  fleet  lay  at  anchor.  An  immense  con- 
course flocked  thither  to  witness  this  magnificent  specta- 
cle. The  hearts  of  the  spectators  were  agitated  by 
varied  emotions  as  they  alternately  considered  the  vast- 


140  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

ness  of  the  enterprise  and  the  greatness  of  the  leader. 
Among  the  superior  officers  who  commanded  in  this 
army  were  Gustavus  Horn,  the  Rhinegrave  Otto  Lewis, 
Henry  Matthias,  Count  Thurn,  Ottenburg,  Baudissen, 
Banner,  Teufel,  Tott,  Mutsenfahl,  Falkenberg,  Kniphau- 
sen,  and  other  distinguished  names.  Detained  by  con- 
trary winds,  the  fleet  did  not  sail  till  June,  and  on  the 
24th  of  that  month  reached  the  island  of  Kugen,  in 
Pomerania. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  was  the  first  who  landed.  In  the 
presence  of  his  suite  he  knelt  on  the  shore  of  Germany 
to  return  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  the  safe  arrival  of 
his  fleet  and  his  army.  He  landed  his  troops  on  the 
Islands  of  Wollin  and  Usedom ;  upon  his  approach  the 
imperial  garrisons  abandoned  tlieir  intrenchments  and  fled. 
He  advanced  rapidly  on  Stettin,  to  secure  this  important 
place  before  the  appearance  of  the  Imperialists.  Bogis- 
laus  XIV.,  Duke  of  Pomerania,  a  feeble  and  superannu- 
ated prince,  had  been  long  tired  out  by  tlie  outrages 
committed  by  the  latter  within  his  territories;  but  too 
weak  to  resist  he  had  contented  himself  with  murmurs. 
The  appearance  of  his  deliverer,  instead  of  animating  his 
courage,  increased  his  fear  and  anxiety.  Severely  as  his 
country  had  suffered  from  the  Imperialists,  the  risk  of 
incurring  the  Emperoi-'s  vengeance  prevented  him  from 
declaring  openly  for  the  Swedes.  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
Avho  was  encamped  under  the  walls  of  the  town,  sum- 
moned the  city  to  receive  a  Swedish  garrison.  Bogislaus 
appeared  in  person  in  the  camp  of  Gustavus  to  deprecate 
this  condition.  "  I  come  to  you,"  said  Gustavus,  "  not  as  an 
enemy  but  a  friend.  I  wage  no  war  against  Pomerania, 
nor  against  the  German  empire,  but  against  the  enemies 
of  both.  In  my  hands  this  duchy  shall  be  sacred ;  and  it 
shall  be  restored  to  you  at  the  conclusion  of  the  campaign, 
by  me,  with  more  certainty  than  by  any  other.  Look  to 
the  traces  of  the  imi)erial  force  within  your  territories, 
and  to  mine  in  Usedom  ;  and  decide  whether  you  will 
have  the  Emperor  or  me  as  your  friend.  What  have  you 
to  expect  if  the  Em])eror  should  make  himself  master  of 
your  capital?  Will  he  deal  with  you  more  leniently  than 
I?     Or  is  it  your  intention  to  stop  my  progress?    The 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  141 

case  is  pressing ;  decide  at  once,  and  do  not  compel  me  to 
have  recourse  to  more  violent  measures." 

The  alternative  was  a  painful  one.  On  the  one  side, 
the  King  of  Sweden  was  before  his  gates  with  a  formid- 
able army ;  on  the  other,  he  saw  the  inevitable  ven- 
geance of  the  Emperor,  and  the  fearful  example  of  so 
many  German  princes  who  were  now  wandering  in  misery, 
the  victims  of  that  revenge.  Tlie  more  immediate  danger 
decided  his  resolution.  The  gates  of  Stettin  were  opened 
to  the  king;  the  Swedish  troops  entered;  and  the  Aus- 
trians,  who  were  advancing  by  rapid  marches,  anticipated. 
The  capture  of  this  place  procured  for  the  king  a  fii'm 
footing  in  Pomerania,  the  conmiand  of  the  Oder,  and  a 
magazine  for  his  troops.  To  prevent  a  charge  of  treach- 
ery, Bogislaus  was  careful  to  excuse  this  step  to  the 
Emperor  on  the  plea  of  necessity ;  but  aware  of  Ferdi- 
nand's implacable  disposition,  he  entered  into  a  close 
alliance  with  his  new  protector.  By  this  league  with 
Pomei-ania,  Gustavus  secured  a  powerful  friend  in  Ger- 
many, who  covered  his  rear,  and  maintained  his  com- 
munication with  Sweden. 

As  Ferdinand  was  already  the  aggressor  in  Prussia, 
Gustavus  Adolphus  thought  himself  absolved  from  the 
usual  formalties,  and  commenced  hostilities  without  any 
declaration  of  war.  To  tlie  other  Eurojiean  powers  he 
justified  his  conduct  in  a  manifesto,  in  which  he  detailed 
the  grounds  which  had  led  him  to  take  up  arms.  Mean- 
while he  continued  his  progress  in  Pomerania,  while  he 
saw  his  army  daily  increasing.  The  troops  which  had 
fought  under  Mansfeld,  Duke  Christian  of  Brunswick, 
tlie  King  of  Denmark,  and  Wallenstein  came  in  crowds, 
both  officers  and  soldiers,  to  join  his  victorious  standard. 

At  the  Imperial  court  the  invasion  of  the  King  of 
Sweden  at  first  excited  far  less  attention  than  it  merited. 
The  pride  of  Austria,  extravagantly  elated  by  its  unheard- 
of  successes,  looked  down  with  contempt  upon  a  prince, 
who,  with  a  handful  of  men,  came  from  an  obscure  corner 
of  Europe,  and  who  owed  his  past  successes,  as  they  im- 
agined, entirely  to  the  incapacity  of  a  weak  opponent. 
The  depreciatory  representation  which  Wallenstein  had 
artfully  given  of  the  Swedish  power  increased  the  Em- 


142  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

peror's  security ;  for  what  had  he  to  fear  from  an  enemy 
whom  his  general  undertook  to  drive  with  such  ease 
from  Germany?  Even  the  rapid  progress  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  in  Poraerania  could  not  entirely  dispel  this 
prejudice,  which  the  mockeries  of  the  courtiers  continued 
to  feed.  He  was  called  in  Vienna  the  Snow  King,  whom 
the  cold  of  the  north  kept  together,  but  who  would 
infallibly  melt  as  he  advanced  southward.  Even  the 
electors,  assembled  in  Ratisbon,  disregarded  his  repre- 
sentations ;  and,  influenced  by  an  abject  complaisance  to 
Ferdinand,  refused  him  even  the  title  of  king.  But  while 
they  mocked  him  in  Ratisbon  and  Vienna,  in  Mecklen- 
buro:h  and  Pomerania  one  strong  town  after  another  fell 
into  his  hands. 

Notwithstanding  this  contempt  the  Emperor  thought 
it  proper  to  offer  to  adjust  his  differences  with  Sweden 
by  negotiation,  and  for  that  purpose  sent  plenipotentiaries 
to  Denmark.  But  their  instructions  showed  how  little 
he  was  in  earnest  in  these  proposals,  for  he  still  continued 
to  refuse  to  Gustavus  the  title  of  king.  He  hoped  by 
this  means  to  throw  on  the  King  of  Sweden  the  odium  of 
being  the  aggressor,  and  thereby  to  insure  the  support  of 
the  States  of  the  empire.  The  conference  at  Dantzic 
proved,  as  might  be  expected,  fruitless,  and  the  animosity 
of  both  parties  was  increased  to  its  utmost  by  an  intem- 
perate correspondence. 

An  imperial  general,  Torquato  Conti,  who  commanded 
in  Pomerania,  had,  in  the  meantime,  made  a  vain  attempt 
to  wrest  Stettin  from  the  Swedes.  The  Imperialists  were 
driven  out  from  one  place  after  another ;  Damm,  Star- 
gard,  Camin,  and  Wolgast,  soon  fell  in  the  hands  of  Gus- 
tavus. To  revenge  himself  upon  the  Duke  of  Pomerania, 
the  imperial  general  permitted  his  troops,  upon  his  le- 
treat,  to  exercise  every  barbarity  on  the  unfortunate  in- 
habitants of  Pomerania,  who  had  already  suffered  but  too 
severely  from  his  avarice.  On  pretence  of  cutting  off  the 
resources  of  the  Swedes,  the  whole  country  was  laid 
waste  and  plundered ;  and  often,  when  the  Imperialists 
were  unable  any  longer  to  maintain  a  place,  it  was  laid  in 
ashes,  in  order  t&  leave  the  enemy  nothing  but  ruins. 
But  these  barbarities  only  served  to  place  in  a  more  fa- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  143 

vorable  light  the  opposite  conduct  of  the  Swedes,  and  to 
win  all  hearts  to  their  humane  monarch.  The  Swedish 
soldier  paid  for  all  he  required ;  no  private  property  was 
injured  on  his  march.  The  Swedes  consequently  were 
received  with  open  arras  both  in  town  and  country,  whilst 
every  Imperialist  that  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Pomeran- 
ian peasantry  was  ruthlessly  murdered.  Many  Pomeran- 
ians entered  into  the  service  of  Sweden,  and  the  estates 
of  this  exhausted  country  willingly  voted  the  king  a  con- 
tribution of  one  hundred  thousand   florins. 

Torquato  Conti,  who,  with  all  his  severity  of  character, 
was  a  consummate  general,  endeavored  to  render  Stettin 
useless  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  as  he  could  not  deprive 
him  of  it.  He  inti'enched  himself  upon  the  Oder,  at 
Gratz,  above  Stettin,  in  order,  by  commanding  that  river, 
to  cut  off  the  water  communication  of  the  town  with  the 
rest  of  Germany.  Nothing  could  induce  him  to  attack 
the  King  of  Sweden,  who  was  his  superior  in  numbers, 
while  the  latter  was  equally  cautious  not  to  storm  the 
strong  intrenchments  of  the  Imperialists.  Torquato,  too 
deficient  in  troops  and  money  to  act  upon  the  offensive 
against  the  king,  hoped  by  this  plan  of  operations  to  give 
time  for  Tilly  to  hasten  to  the  defence  of  Pomerania,  and 
then,  in  conjunction  with  that  general,  to  attack  the 
Swedes.  Seizing  the  opportunity  of  the  temporary 
absence  of  Gustavus,  he  made  a  sudden  attempt  upon 
Stettin,  but  the  Swedes  were  not  unprepared  for  him. 
A  vigorous  attack  of  the  Imperialists  was  firmly  repulsed, 
and  Torquato  was  forced  to  retire  with  great  loss.  For 
this  auspicious  commencement  of  the  war,  however,  Gus- 
tavus was,  it  must  be  owned,  as  much  indebted  to  his 
good  fortune  as  to  his  military  talents.  The  imperial 
troops  in  Pomerania  had  been  greatly  reduced  since  Wal- 
lenstein's  dismissal ;  moreover,  the  outrages  they  had 
committed  were  now  severely  revenged  upon  them ; 
wasted  and  exhausted,  the  country  no  longer  afforded 
them  a  subsistence.  All  discipline  was  at  an  end ;  the 
orders  of  the  officers  were  disregarded,  while  their  num- 
bers daily  decreased  by  desertion,  and  by  a  general  mor- 
tality, which  the  piercing  cold  of  a  strange  climate  had 
produced  among  them. 


144  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  imperial  general  was 
anxious  to  allow  his  troops  the  repose  of  winter  quarters, 
but  he  had  to  do  with  an  enemy  to  whom  the  climate  of 
Germany  had  no  winter.  Gustavus  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution of  providing  his  soldiers  with  dresses  of  sheep- 
skin, to  enable  them  to  keep  the  field  even  in  the  most 
inclement  season.  The  imperial  plenipotentiaries,  who 
came  to  treat  with  him  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities, 
received  this  discouraging  answer:  "The  Swedes  are 
soldiers  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer,  and  not  disposed 
to  oppress  the  unfortunate  peasantry.  The  Iinperialists 
may  act  as  they  think  proper,  but  they  need  not  expect 
to  remain  undisturbed."  Torquato  Conti  soon  after 
resigned  a  command  in  which  neither  riches  nor  reputa- 
tion were  to  be  gained. 

In  this  inequality  of  the  two  armies  the  advantage  was 
necessarily  on  the  side  of  the  Swedes.  The  Imperialists- 
were  incessantly  harassed  in  their  winter  quarters ; 
Greifenhagen,  an  important  place  upon  the  Oder,  taken 
by  storm,  and  the  towns  of  Gratz  and  Piritz  were  at  last 
abandoned  by  the  enemy.  In  the  whole  of  Pomerania 
Griefswald,  Demmin,  and  Colberg  alone  remained  in  their 
hands,  and  these  the  king  made  great  preparations  lo 
besiege.  The  enemy  directed  their  retreat  towards 
Brandenburg,  in  which  much  of  their  artillery  and  bag- 
gage, and  many  prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
pursuers. 

By  seizing  the  passes  of  Riebnitz  and  Damgarden  Gus- 
tavus had  opened  a  passage  into  Mecklenburg,  whose  in- 
habitants were  invited  to  return  to  their  allegiance  under 
their  legitimate  sovereigns,  and  to  expel  the  adherents  of 
Wallenstein.  The  Imperialists,  however,  gained  the  im- 
portant town  of  Rostock  by  stratagem,  and  thus  prevented 
the  farther  advance  of  the  king,  who  was  unwilling  to  di- 
vide the  forces.  The  exiled  dukes  of  Mecklenburgh  had 
ineffectually  employed  the  princes  assembled  at  Ratisbon 
to  intercede  with  the  Em])eror ;  in  vain  they  had  endeav- 
ored to  soften  Ferdinand,  by  renouncing  the  alliance  of 
the  king  and  every  idea  of  resistance.  But,  driven  to  de- 
spair by  the  Emperor's  inflexibility,  they  openly  espoused 
the  side  of  Sweden,  and  raising  troops,  gave  the  connnand 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAB.  145 

of  them  to  Francis  Charles,  Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg. 
That  general  made  himself  master  of  several  strong  places 
on  the  Elbe,  but  lost  them  afterwards  to  the  Imperial  Gen- 
eral Pappenhcira,  who  was  despatched  to  oppose  him. 
Soon  afterwards,  besieged  by  the  latter  in  the  town  of 
Ratzeburg,  he  was  compelled  to  surrender  with  all  his 
troops.  Thus  ended  the  attempt  which  these  unfortunate 
princes  made  to  recover  their  territories ;  and  it  m' as  re- 
served for  the  victorious  arm  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  to 
render  them  that  brilliant  service. 

The  Imperialists  had  thrown  themselves  into  Branden- 
burg, which  now  became  the  theatre  of  the  most  barbarous 
atrocities.  These  outrages  were  inflicted  upon  the  sub- 
jects of  a  prince  who  had  never  injured  the  Emperor,  and 
whom,  moreover,  he  was  at  the  very  time  inciting  to  take 
up  arms  against  the  King  of  Sweden.  The  sight  of  the 
disorders  of  their  soldiers,  which  want  of  money  compelled 
them  to  wink  at,  and  of  authority  over  their  troops,  ex- 
cited the  disgust  even  of  the  Imperial  generals,  and,  from 
very  shame,  their  commander-in-chief,  Count  Schaumburg, 
wished  to  resign. 

Without  a  sufficient  force  to  protect  his  territories,  and 
left  by  the  Emperor,  in  spite  of  the  most  pressing  remon- 
strances, without  assistance,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
at  last  issued  an  edict,  ordering  his  subjects  to  repel  force 
by  force,  and  to  put  to  death  without  mercy  every  Impe- 
rial soldier  who  should  henceforth  be  detected  in  plun- 
dering. To  such  a  height  had  the  violence  of  outrage 
and  the  misery  of  the  government  risen  that  nothing  was 
left  to  the  sovereign  but  the  desperate  extremity  of  sanc- 
tioning private  vengeance  by  a  formal  law. 

The  Swedes  had  pursued  the  Imperialists  into  Branden- 
burg ;  and  only  the  Elector's  refusal  to  open  to  him  the 
fortress  of  Custrin  for  his  march  obliged  the  King  to  lay 
aside  his  design  of  besieging  Frankfort  on  the  Oder.  He 
therefore  returned  to  complete  the  conquest  of  Fome- 
rania  by  the  capture  of  Demmin  and  Colberg.  In  the 
meantime,  Field-Marshal  Tilly  was  advancing  to  the  de- 
fence of  Brandenburg. 

This  general,  who  could  boast  as  yet  of  never  having 
Buffered  a  defeat ;  the  conqueror  of  Mansfeld,  of  Duke 


146  THE   THIRTY   YEARS    WAR. 

Christian  of  Brunswick,  of  the  Margrave  of  Baden,  and 
the  King  of  Denmark,  was  now,  in  the  Swedish  monarch, 
to  meet  an  opponent  worthy  of  his  fame.  Descended  of  a 
noble  family  in  Liege,  Tilly  had  formed  his  military  talents 
in  the  wars  of  the  Netherlands,  which  was  then  the  great 
school  for  generals.  He  soon  found  an  opportunity  of 
distinguishing  himself  under  Rodolph  II.  in  Hungary, 
where  he  rapidly  rose  from  one  step  to  another.  After 
the  peace  he  entered  into  the  service  of  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  wlio  made  him  commander-in-chief  with  absolute 
powers.  Here,  by  his  excellent  regulations,  he  was  the 
founder  of  the  Bavarian  army;  and  to  him,  chiefly,  Maxi- 
milian was  indebted  for  his  superiority  in  the  field.  Upon 
the  termination  of  the  Bohemian  war  he  was  appointed 
commander  of  the  troops  of  the  League ;  and,  after  Wal- 
lenstein's  dismissal,  generalissimo  of  the  Imperial  armies. 
Equally  stern  towards  his  soldiers  and  implacable  towards 
his  enemies,  and  as  gloomy  and  impenetrable  as  Wallen- 
stein,  he  was  greatly  "his  superior  in  probity  and  disinter- 
estedness. A  bigoted  zeal  for  religion  and  a  bloody  spirit 
of  persecution  co-operated  with  the  natural  ferocity  of 
his  character  to  make  him  the  terror  of  the  Protestants. 
A  strange  and  terrific  aspect  bespoke  his  character ;  of  low 
stature,  1-hin,  with  hollow  cheeks,  a  long  nose,  a  broad  and 
wrinkled  forehead,  large  whiskers  and  a  pointed  chin;  he 
was  generally  attired  in  a  Spanisli  doublet  of  green  satin, 
with  slashed  sleeves,  with  a  small  high-peaked  hat  upon 
his  head,  surmounted  by  a  red  feather,  which  hung  down 
to  his  back.  His  whole  aspect  recalled  to  recollection  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  the  scourge  of  the  Flemings ;  and  his  ac- 
tions were  far  from  effacing  the  impression.  Such  was 
the  general  who  was  now  to  be  opposed  to  the  hero  of 
the  north. 

Tilly  was  far  from  undervaluing  liis  antagonist.  "The 
King  of  Sweden,"  said  he,  in  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon,  "is 
an  enemy  both  prudent  and  brave,  inured  to  war,  and  in 
the  flower  of  his  age.  His  plans  are  excellent,  his  re- 
sources considerable,  his  subjects  enthusiastically  attached 
to  him.  His  army,  composed  of  Swedes,  Germans, 
Livonians,  Finlanders,  Scots,  and  English,  by  its  devoted 
obedience  to  their  leader,  is  blended  into  one  nation ;  he 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  147 

is  a  gamester  in  playing  with  whom  not  to  have  lost  is  to 
have  won  a  great  deal." 

The  progress  of  the  King  of  Sweden  in  Brandenburg 
and  Pomerania  left  the  new  generalissimo  no  time  to 
lose ;  and  his  presence  was  now  urgently  called  for  by 
those  who  commanded  in  that  quarter.  With  all  expe- 
dition he  collected  the  imperial  troops  which  were  dis- 
persed over  the  empire ;  but  it  required  time  to  obtain 
from  the  exhausted  and  impoverished  provinces  the 
necessary  supplies.  At  last,  about  the  middle  of  winter, 
he  appeared  at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand  men  before 
Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  where  he  was  joined  by  Schaum- 
burg.  Leaving  to  this  general  the  defence  of  Frankfort, 
with  a  sufficient  garrison,  he  hastened  to  Pomerania  with 
a  view  of  saving  Demmin  and  relieving  Colberg,  which 
was  already  hard  pressed  by  the  Swedes.  But  even 
before  he  had  left  Brandenburg,  Demmin,  which  was  but 
poorly  defended  by  the  Duke  of  Savelli,  had  surrendered 
to  the  king,  and  Colberg,  after  a  five  months'  siege,  was 
starved  into  a  capitulation.  As  the  passes  in  Upper 
Pomerania  were  well  guarded,  and  the  king's  camp 
near  Schwedt  defied  attack,  Tilly  abandoned  his  offen- 
sive plan  of  operations  and  retreated  towards  the  Elbe  to 
besiege  Magdeburg. 

The  capture  of  Demmin  opened  to  the  king  a  free 
passage  into  Mecklenburg ;  but  a  more  important  enter- 
prise drew  his  arms  into  another  quarter.  Scarcely  had 
Tilly  commenced  his  retrograde  movement,  when  sud- 
denly breaking  up  his  camp  at  Schwedt,  the  king  marched 
his  whole  force  against  Frankfort  on  the  Oder.  This 
town,  badly  fortified,  was  defended  by  a  garrison  of  eight 
thousand  men,  mostly  composed  of  those  ferocious  bands 
who  had  so  cruelly  ravaged  Pomerania  and  Brandenburg. 
It  was  now  attacked  with  such  impetuosity  that  on  the 
third  day  it  was  taken  by  storm.  The  Swedes,  assured  of 
victory,  rejected  every  offer  of  capitulation,  as  they 
were  resolved  to  exercise  the  dreadful  right  of  retaliation. 
For  Tilly,  soon  after  his  arrival,  had  surrounded  a  Swed- 
ish detachment,  and,  irritated  by  their  obstinate  resist- 
ance, had  cut  them  in  pieces  to  a  man.  This  cruelty  was 
not    forgotten    by   the    Swedes.      "New   Brandenburg 


148  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Quarter,"  they  replied  to  the  Imperialists  who  begged 
their  lives,  and  slaughtered  them  without  mercy.  Several 
thousands  were  either  killed  or  taken,  and  many  were 
drowned  in  the  Oder;  the  rest  fled  to  Silesia.  All  their 
artillery  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  To  satisfy 
the  rage  of  his  troops  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  under  the 
necessity  of  giving  up  the  town  for  three  hours  to 
plunder. 

While  the  king  was  thus  advancing  from  one  conquest 
to  another,  and  by  his  success  encouraging  the  Protest- 
ants to  active  resistance,  the  Emperor  proceeded  to 
enforce  the  Edict  of  Restitution,  and  by  his  exorbitant 
pretensions  to  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  states.  Com- 
pelled by  necessity,  he  continued  the  violent  course 
which  he  had  begun  with  such  arrogant  confidence  ;  the 
difficulties  into  which  his  arbitrary  conduct  had  plunged 
him  he  could  only  extricate  himself  from  by  measures 
still  more  arbitrary.  But  in  so  complicated  a  body  as 
the  German  empire  despotism  must  always  create  the 
most  dangerous  convulsions.  With  astonishment  the 
princes  beheld  the  constitution  of  the  empire  overthrown, 
and  the  state  of  nature  to  which  matters  were  again 
verging,  suggested  to  them  the  idea  of  self-defence,  the 
only  means  of  protection  in  such  a  state  of  things.  The 
steps  openly  taken  by  the  Emperor  against  the  Lutheran 
church  had  at  last  removed  the  veil  from  the  eyes  of 
John  George,  who  had  been  so  long  the  dupe  of  his 
artful  policy.  Ferdinand,  too,  had  personally  offended 
him  by  the  exclusion  of  his  son  from  the  archbishopric 
of  Magdeburg ;  and  field-marshal  Arnheim,  his  new  favor- 
ite and  minister,  spared  no  pains  to  increase  the  resent- 
ment of  his  master.  Arnheim  had  formerly  been  an 
imperial  general  under  Wallenstein,  and  being  still  zeal- 
ously attached  to  him,  he  was  eager  to  avenge  his  old 
benefactor  and  himself  on  the  Emperor  by  detaching 
Saxony  from  the  Austrian  interests.  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
supported  by  the  Protestant  states,  would  be  invincible; 
a  consideration  which  already  filled  the  Emperor  with 
alarm.  The  example  of  Saxony  would  probably  influ- 
ence others,  and  the  Emperor's  fate  seemed  now  in  a 
manner  to  depend  upon  the  Elector's  decision.    The 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS*   WAR.  149 

artful  favorite  impressed  upon  his  master  this  idea  of  his 
own  importance,  and  advised  him  to  terrify  the  Emperor 
by  threatening  an  alliance  with  Sweden,  and  thus  to 
extort  from  his  fears  what  he  had  sought  in  vain  from  his 
gratitude.  The  favorite,  however,  was  far  from  wishing 
him  actually  to  enter  into  the  Swedish  alliance,  but,  by 
holding  aloof  from  both  parties,  to  maintain  his  own 
importance  and  independence.  Accordingly  he  laid  be- 
fore him  a  plan  which  only  wanted  a  more  able  hand  to 
carry  it  into  execution,  and  recommended  him,  by  head- 
ing the  Protestant  party,  to  erect  a  third  power  in  Ger- 
many, and  thereby  maintain  the  balance  between  Sweden 
and  Austria. 

This  project  was  peculiarly  flattering  to  the  Saxon 
Elector,  to  whom  the  idea  of  being  dependent  on  Sweden, 
or  of  longer  submitting  to  the  tyranny  of  the  Emperor, 
was  equally  hateful.  He  could  not,  with  indifference, 
see  the  control  of  German  affairs  wrested  from  him  by  a 
foreign  prince ;  and  incapable  as  he  was  of  taking  a  prin- 
cipal part,  his  vanity  would  not  condescend  to  act  a 
subordinate  one.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to  draw  every 
possible  advantage  from  the  progress  of  Gustavus,  but  to 
pursue,  independently,  his  own  separate  plans.  With 
this  view,  he  consulted  with  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
who,  from  similar  causes,  was  ready  to  act  against  the 
Emperor,  but,  at  the  same  time,  was  jealous  of  Sweden. 
In  a  Diet  at  Torgau,  having  assured  himself  of  the  sup- 
port of  his  Estates,  he  invited  the  Protestant  States  of 
the  empire  to  a  general  convention,  wliich  took  place  at 
Leipzig  on  the  6th  February,  1631.  Brandenburg,  Hesse 
Cassel,  with  several  princes,  counts,  estates  of  the  empire, 
and  Protestant  bishops  were  present,  either  personally  or 
by  deputy,  at  this  assembly,  which  the  chaplain  to  the 
court.  Dr.  Hoe  von  Hohenegg,  opened  with  a  vehement 
discourse  from  the  pulpit.  The  Emperor  had  in  vain 
endeavored  to  prevent  this  self-appointed  convention, 
whose  object  was  evidently  to  provide  for  its  own  de- 
fence, and  which  the  presence  of  the  Swedes  in  the  empire 
rendered  more  than  usually  alarming.  Emboldened  by 
the  progress  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  the  assembled  princes 
asserted  their  rights,  and  after  a  session  of  two  months 


150  THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'   WAR. 

broke  up  with  adopting  a  resolution  which  placed  the 
Emperor  in  no  slight  embarrassment.  Its  import  was 
to  demand  of  the  Emperor,  in  a  general  address,  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Restitution,  the  withdrawal 
of  his  troops  from  their  capitals  and  fortresses,  the 
suspension  of  all  existing  proceedings,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  abuses ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  to  raise  an  army 
of  forty  thousand  men  to  enable  them  to  redress  their 
own  grievances  if  the  Emperor  should  still  refuse  satis- 
faction. 

A  further  incident  contributed  not  a  little  to  increase 
the  firmness  of  the  Protestant  princes.  The  King  of 
Sweden  had  at  last  overcome  the  scruples  which  had 
deterred  him  from  a  closer  alliance  with  France,  and,  on 
the  13th  January,  1631,  concluded  a  formal  treaty  with 
this  crown.  After  a  serious  dispute  respecting  the  treat- 
ment of  the  Roman  Catholic  princes  of  the  empire, 
whom  France  took  under  her  protection,  and  against 
whom  Gustavus  claimed  the  right  of  retaliation,  and 
after  some  less  important  differences  with  regard  to  the 
title  of  majesty,  which  the  pride  of  France  was  loth  to 
concede  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  Richelieu  yielded  the 
second,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  the  first  point,  and  the 
treaty  was  signed  at  Beerwald,  in  Neumark.  The  con- 
tracting parties  mutually  covenanted  to  defend  each  other 
Avith  a  military  force,  to  protect  their  common  friends,  to 
restore  to  their  dominions  the  deposed  princes  of  the  em- 
pire, and  to  replace  everything,  both  on  the  frontier  and 
in  the  interior  of  Germany,  on  the  same  footing  on  which 
it  stood  before  the  commencment  of  tlie  war.  For  this 
end  Sweden  engaged  to  maintain  an  army  of  thirty  thou- 
sand men  in  Germany,  and  France  agreed  to  furnish  the 
Swedes  with  an  annual  subsidy  of  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  If  the  arms  of  Gustavus  were  successful  he 
was  to  respect  the  Catholic  religion  and  the  constitution 
of  the  empire  in  all  the  conquered  places,  and  to  make 
no  attempt  against  either.  All  Estates  anA  princes, 
whether  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic,  either  in  Ger- 
many or  in  other  countries,  were  to  be  invited  to  become 
parties  to  the  treaty ;  neither  France  nor  Sweden  was  to 
conclude  a  separate  peace  without  the  knowledge  and 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  151 

consent  of  the  other ;  and  the  treaty  itself  was  to  con- 
tinue in  force  for  five  years. 

C4reat  as  was  the  struggle  to  the  King  of  Sweden  to  re- 
ceive subsidies  from  France,  and  sacrifice  his  independ- 
ence in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  this  alliance  with  France 
decided  his  cause  in  Germany.  Protected  as  he  now  was  by 
the  greatest  power  in  Europe,  the  German  states  began 
to  feel  confidence  in  his  undertaking,  for  the  issue  of 
which  they  had  hitherto  good  reason  to  tremble.  He 
became  truly  formidable  to  the  Emperor.  The  Roman 
Catholic  princes,  too,  who,  though  they  were  anxious  to 
humble  Austria,  had  witnessed  his  progress  with  distrust, 
were  less  alarmed  now  that  an  alliance  with  a  Roman 
Catholic  power  insured  his  respect  for  their  religion. 
And  thus,  while  Gustavus  Adolphus  protected  the  Prot- 
estant religion  and  the  liberties  of  Germany  against  the 
aggression  of  Ferdinand,  France  secured  those  liberties, 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  against  Gustavus  him- 
self, if  the  intoxication  of  success  should  hurry  him  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  moderation. 

The  King  of  Sweden  lost  no  time  in  apprizing  the 
members  of  the  confederacy  of  Leipzig  of  the  treaty  con- 
cluded with  France,  and  inviting  them  to  a  closer  union 
with  himself.  The  application  was  seconded  by  France, 
who  spared  no  pains  to  win  over  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 
Gustavus  was  willing  to  be  content  with  secret  support, 
if  the  princes  should"  deem  it  too  bold  a  step  as  yet  to  de- 
clare openly  in  his  favor.  Several  princes  gave  him  hopes 
of  his  proposals  being  accepted  on  the  first  favorable 
opportunity;  but  the  Saxcn  Elector,  full  of  jealousy  and 
distrust  towards  the  King  of  Sweden,  and  true  to  the 
selfish  policy  he  had  pursued,  could  not  be  prevailed  upon 
to  give  a  decisive  answer. 

the  resolution  of  the  confederacy  of  Leipzig,  and  the 
alliance  betwixt  France  and  Sweden,  were  news  equally 
disagreeable  to  the  Emperor,  Against  them  he  employed 
the  "thunder  of  imperial  ordinances,  and  the  want  of  an 
army  saved  France  from  the  f uU  weight  of  his  displeasure. 
Remonstrances  were  addressed  to  all  the  members  of  the 
confederacy,  strongly  prohibiting  them  from  enlistmg 
troops.     They  retorted  with  explanations  equally  vehe- 


152  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

ment,  justified  their  conduct  upon  the  principles  of  natural 
right,  and  continued  their  preparations. 

Meantime,  the  imperial  generals,  deficient  both  in 
troops  and  money,  found  themselves  reduced  to  the  dis- 
agreeable alternative  of  losins:  sisfht  eitlier  of  the  Kins^  of 
Sweden,  or  of  the  Estates  of  the  empire,  since  with  a 
divided  force  they  were  not  a  match  for  either.  The 
movements  of  the  Protestants  called  their  attention  to 
the  interior  of  the  empire,  while  the  progress  of  the  king 
in  Brandenburg,  by  threatening  the  hereditary  possessions 
of  Austria,  required  them  to  turn  their  arms  to  that  quar- 
ter. After  the  conquest  of  Frankfort,  the  king  had 
advanced  upon  Landsberg  on  the  Warta,  and  Tilly,  after 
a  fruitless  attempt  to  relieve  it,  had  again  returned  to 
Magdeburg,  to  prosecute  with  vigor  the  siege  of  that 
town. 

The  rich  archbishopric,  of  which  Magdeburg  was  the 
capital,  had  long  been  in  the  possession  of  princes  of  tlie 
house  of  Brandenburg,  who  introduced  the  Protestant 
religion  into  the  province.  Christian  William,  the  last 
administrator,  had,  by  his  alliance  with  Denmark,  incurred 
the  ban  of  the  empire,  on  which  account  the  chapter,  to 
avoid  the  Emperor's  displeasure,  had  formally  deposed 
him.  In  his  place  they  had  elected  Prince  John  Augus- 
tus, the  second  son  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  whom  the 
Emperor  rejected,  in  order  to  confer  the  archbishoi^ric  on 
his  son  Leopold.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  complained 
ineffectually  to  the  imperial  court ;  but  Christian  William 
of  Brandenburg  took  more  active  measures.  Relying  on 
the  attachment  of  the  magistracy  and  inhabitants  of 
Brandenburg,  and  excited -by  chimerical  hopes,  he  thought 
himself  able  to  surmount  all  the  obstacles  Avhich  the  vote 
of  the  chapter,  the  competition  of  two  powerful  rivals, 
and  the  Edict  of  Restitution  opposed  to  his  restoj-ation. 
Pie  went  to  Sweden,  and,  by  the  promise  of  a  diversion 
in  Germany,  sought  to  obtain  assistance  from  Gustavus. 
He  was  dismissed  by  that  monarch  not  Avithout  hopes 
of  effectual  protection,  but  with  the  advice  to  act  with 
caution. 

Scarcely  had  Christian  William  been  informed  of  the 
Janding  of  his  protector  in  Pomerania  than  he  entered 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  153 

Magdeburg  in  disguise.  Appearing  suddenly  in  the  town 
council,  he  reminded  the  magistrates  of  the  ravages 
which  both  town  and  country  had  suffered  from  the  im- 
perial troops,  of  the  pernicious  designs  of  Ferdinand,  and 
the  danger  of  the  Protestant  church.  He  then  informed 
them  that  the  moment  of  deliverance  was  at  hand,  and 
that  Gustavus  Adolphus  offered  them  his  alliance  and 
assistance.  Magdeburg,  one  of  the  most  flourishing 
towns  in  Germany,  enjoyed  under  the  government  of  its 
magistrates  a  republican  freedom,  which  inspired  its  citi- 
zens with  a  brave  heroism.  Of  this  they  had  already  given 
proofs,  in  the  bold  defence  of  their  rights  against  Wallen- 
stein,who,  tempted  by  their  wealth,  made  on  them  the  most 
extravagant  demands.  Their  territory  had  been  given 
up  to  tlfe  fury  of  his  troops,  though  Magdeburg  itself  had 
escaped  his  vengeance.  It  was  not  difficult,  therefore, 
for  the  Administi-ator  to  gain  the  concurrence  of  men  in 
whose  minds  the  remembrance  of  these  outrages  was  still 
recent.  An  alliance  was  formed  between  the  city  and 
the  Swedish  king,  by  which  Magdeburg  granted  to  the 
king  a  free  passage  through  its  gates  and  territories,  with 
liberty  of  enlisting  soldiers  within  its  boundaries,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  obtained  promises  of  effectual  protection 
for  its  religion  and  its  privileges. 

The  Administrator  immediately  collected  troops  and 
commenced  hostilities,  before  Gustavus  Adolphus  was 
near  enough  to  co-operate  with  him.  He  defeated  some 
imperial  detachments  in  the  neighborhood,  made  a  few 
conquests,  and  even  surprised  Halle.  But  the  approach 
of  an  imperial  army  obliged  him  to  retreat  hastily,  and 
not  without  loss,  to  Magdeburg.  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
though  displeased  with  his  premature  measures,  sent 
Dietrich  Falkenberg,  an  experienced  officer,  to  direct  the 
Administrator's  military  operations,  and  to  assist  him 
with  his  counsel.  Falkenberg  was  named  by  the  magis- 
trates governor  of  the  town  during  the  war.  The  Prince's 
army  was  daily  augmented  by  recruits  from  the  neigh- 
boring towns ;  and  he  was  able  for  some  months  to  main- 
tain a  petty  warfare  with  success. 

At  length  Count  Pappenheim,  having  brought  his  expe- 
dition against  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg  to  a  close, 


154  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

approached  the  town.  Driving  the  troops  of  the  Admin- 
istrator from  their  entrenchments,  he  cut  off  his  commun- 
ication with  Saxony,  and  closely  invested  the  place.  He 
was  soon  followed  by  Tilly,  who  haughtily  summoned  the 
Elector  forthwith  to  comply  with  the  Edict  of  Restitution, 
to  submit  to  the  Emperor's  orders,  and  surrender  Magde- 
burg. The  Prince's  answer  was  spirited  and  resolute,  and 
obliged  Tilly  at  once  to  have  recourse  to  arms. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  siege  was  prolonged,  by  the  pro- 
gress of  the  King  of  Sweden,  which  called  the  Austrian 
general  from  before  the  place ;  and  the  jealousy  of  the 
officers  who  conducted  the  operations  in  his  absence 
delayed  for  some  months  the  fall  of  Magdeburg.  On  the 
30th  March,  1631,  Tilly  returned,  to  push  the  siege  with 
vigor. 

The  outworks  were  soon  carried,  and  Falkenberg,  after 
withdrawing  the  garrisons  from  the  points  which  he  could 
no  longer  hold,  destroyed  the  bridge  over  the  Elbe.  As 
his  troops  were  barely  sufficient  to  defend  the  extensive 
fortifications,  the  suburbs  of  Sudenburg  and  Neustadt 
were  abandoned  to  the  enemy,  who  immediately  laid 
them  in  ashes.  Pappenheim,  now  separated  from  Tilly, 
crossed  the  Elbe  at  Schonenbeck,  and  attacked  the  town 
from  the  opposite  side. 

The  garrison,  reduced  by  the  defence  of  the  outworks, 
scarcely  exceeded  two  thousand  infantry  and  a  iew 
hundred  horse ;  a  small  number  for  so  extensive  and 
irregular  a  fortress.  To  supply  this  deficiency,  the  citi- 
zens were  armed,  a  desperate  expedient,  which  produced 
more  evils  than  those  it  prevented.  The  citizens,  at  best 
but  indifferent  soldiers,  by  their  disunion  threw  the  town 
into  confusion.  The  poor  complained  that  they  were 
exposed  to  every  hardship  and  danger,  while  the  rich,  by 
hiring  substitutes,  remained  at  home  in  safety.  These 
rumors  broke  out  at  last  in  an  open  mutiny ;  indifference 
succeeded  to  zeal;  weariness  and  negligence  took  the 
place  of  vigilance  and  foresight.  Dissension,  combined 
with  growing  scarcity,  gradually  produced  a  feeling  of 
despondency ;  many  began  to  tremble  at  the  desperate 
nature  of  their  undertaking,  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
power  to  which  they  were  opposed.     But  religious  zeal, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  155 

an  ardent  love  of  liberty,  an  invincible  hatred  to  the 
Austi'ian  yoke,  and  the  expectation  of  speedy  relief,  ban- 
ished as  yet  the  idea  of  a  surrender ;  and,  divided  as  they 
were  in  everything  else,  they  were  united  in  the  resolve 
to  defend  themselves  to  the  last  extremity. 

Their  hopes  of  succor  were  apparently  well  founded. 
They  knew  that  the  confederacy  of  Leipzig  was  arming ; 
they  were  aware  of  the  near  approach  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  Both  were  alike  interested  in  the  preservation 
of  Magdeburg ;  and  a  few  days  might  bring  the  King  of 
Sweden  before  its  walls.  AH  this  was  also  known  to 
Tilly,  who,  therefore,  was  anxious  to  make  himself  speed- 
ily master  of  the  place.  With  this  view  he  had  despatched 
a  trumpeter  with  letters  to  the  Administrator,  the  com- 
mandant, and  the  magistrates,  offering  terms  of  capitu- 
lation ;  but  he  received  for  answer,  that  they  would 
rather  die  than  surrender.  A  spirited  sally  of  the  citizens 
also  convinced  him  that  their  courage  was  as  earnest  as 
their  words,  while  the  king's  arrival  at  Potsdam,  with  the 
incursions  of  the  Swedes  as  far  as  Zerbst,  filled  him  with 
uneasiness,  but  raised  the  hopes  of  the  garrison.  A 
second  trumpeter  was  now  despatched ;  but  the  more 
moderate  tone  of  his  demands  increased  the  confidence 
of  the  besieged,  and  unfortunately  their  negligence  also. 

The  besiegers  had  now  pushed  their  approaches  as  far  as 
the  ditch,  and  vigorously  cannonaded  the  fortifications 
from  the  abandoned  batteries.  One  tower  was  entirely 
overthrown,  but  this  did  not  facilitate  an  assault,  as  it 
fell  sidewise  upon  the  wall,  and  not  into  the  ditch. 
Notwithstanding  the  continual  bombardment  the  walls 
had  not  suffered  much ;  and  the  fire  balls,  Avhich  were 
intended  to  set  the  town  in  flames,  were  deprived  of 
their  effect  by  the  excellent  precautions  adopted  against 
them.  But  the  ammunition  of  the  besieged  was  nearly 
expended,  and  the  cannon  of  the  town  gradually  ceased 
to  answer  the  fire  of  the  Imperialists.  Before  a  new 
supply  could  be  obtained  Magdeburg  would  be  either 
relieved  or  taken.  The  hopes  of  the  besieged  were  on 
the  stretch,  and  all  eyes  anxiously  directed  towards  the 
quarter  in  which  the  Swedish  banners  were  expected  to 
appear.     Gustavus  Adolphus  was  near  enough  to  reach 


156  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Magdeburg  within  three  days ;  security  grew  with  hope, 
M'hich  all  things  contributed  to  augment.  On  the  9th  of 
May,  the  fire  of  the  Imperialists  was  suddenly  stopped, 
and  the  cannon  withdrawn  from  several  of  the  batteries. 
A  deathlike  stillness  reigned  in  the  Imperial  camp.  The 
besieged  were  convinced  that  deliverance  was  at  hand. 
Both  citizens  and  soldiers  left  their  posts  upon  the 
ramparts  early  in  the  morning  to  indulge  themselves, 
after  their  long  toils,  with  the  refreshment  of  sleep,  but 
it  was  indeed  a  dear  sleep,  and  a  frightful  awakening. 

Tilly  had  abandoned  the  hope  of  taking  the  town, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Swedes,  by  the  means  which  he 
had  hitherto  adopted  ;  he  therefore  determined  to  raise 
the  siege,  but  first  to  hazard  a  general  assault.  This 
plan,  however,  was  attended  with  great  difficulties,  as  no 
breach  had  been  effected,  and  the  works  were  scarcely 
injured.  But  the  council  of  war  assembled  on  this  occa- 
sion declared  for  an  assault,  citing  the  example  of  Maes- 
tricht,  which  had  been  taken  early  in  the  morning,  while 
the  citizens  and  soldiers  were  reposing  themselves.  The 
attack  was  to  be  made  simultaneously  on  four  points; 
the  night  betwixt  the  9th  and  10th  of  May  was  employed 
in  the  neccessary  preparations.  Everything  was  ready 
and  awaiting  the  signal,  which  was  to  be  given  by  cannon 
at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  signal,  however,  was 
not  given  for  two  hours  later,  during  which  Tilly,  who 
was  still  doubtful  of  success,  again  consulted  the  council 
of  war.  Pappenheim  was  ordered  to  attack  the  works 
of  the  new  town,  where  the  attempt  was  favored  by  a 
sloping  rampart,  and  a  dry  ditch  of  moderate  depth. 
The  citizens  and  soldiers  had  mostly  left  the  walls,  and 
the  few  who  remained  were  overcome  with  sleep,^  Tliis 
general,  therefore,  found  little  difficulty  in  mounting  the 
wall  at  the  head  of  his  troops. 

Falkenberg,  roused  by  the  report  of  musketry,  hastened 
from  the  town-house,  where  he  was  employed  in  despatcli- 
ing  Tilly's  second  trumpeter,  and  hurried  with  all  the 
force  he  could  hastily  assemble  towards  the  gate  of  the 
new  town,  which  was  already  in  the  possession  of  the 
enemy.  Beaten  back,  this  intrepid  general  flew  to 
another  quarter,  where  a  second  party  of  the  enemy  were 


THE   THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR.  157 

preparing  to  scale  the  walls.  After  an  ineffectual  resist- 
ance he  fell  in  the  commencement  of  the  action.  The 
roaring  of  musketry,  the  pealing  of  the  alarm-bells,  and 
the  growing  tumult  apprised  the  awakening  citizens  of 
their  danger.  Hastily  arming  themselves,  they  rushed 
in  blind  confusion  against  the  enemy.  Still  some  hope 
of  repulsing  the  besiegers  remained  ;  but  the  governor 
being  killed,  their  efforts  were  without  plan  and  co-opera- 
tion, and  at  last  their  ammunition  began  to  fail  them. 
In  the  meanwhile,  two  other  gates,  hitherto  unattacked, 
were  stripped  of  their  defenders,  to  meet  the  urgent 
danger  within  the  town.  The  enemy  quickly  availed 
themselves  of  this  confusion  to  attack  these  posts.  The 
resistance  Avas  nevertheless  spirited  and  obstinate,  until 
four  imperial  regiments,  at  length,  masters  of  the  ram- 
jDarts,  fell  U230n  the  garrison  in  the  rear,  and  completed 
their  rout.  Amidst  the  genei-al  tumult,  a  brave  captain, 
named  Schmidt,  who  still  headed  a  few  of  the  more  reso- 
lute against  the  enemy,  succeeded  in  driving  them  to  the 
gates ;  here  he  fell  mortally  wounded,  and  with  bini 
expired  the  hopes  of  Magdeburg,  iiefore  noon  all  the 
works  were  carried,  and  the  town  was  in  the  enemy's 
hands. 

Two  gates  were  now  opened  by  the  storm  in  g-party  for 
the  main  body,  and  Tilly  marched  in  Avith  part  of  his  in- 
fantry. Immediately  occupying  the  principal  streets,  he 
drove  the  citizens  with  pointed  cannon  into  their  dwell- 
ings, there  to  await  their  destiny.  They  were  not  long 
held  in  suspense ;  a  word  from  Tilly  decided  the  fate  of 
Magdeburg. 

Even  a  more  humane  general  would  in  vain  have 
recommended  mercy  to  such  soldiers ;  but  Tilly  never 
made  the  attempt.  Left  by  their  general's  silence  mas- 
ters of  the  lives  of  all  the  citizens,  the  soldiery  broke 
into  the  houses  to  satiate  their  most  brutal  appetites. 
The  prayers  of  innocence  excited  some  compassion  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Germans,  but  none  in  the  rude  breasts  of 
Pappenheim's  Walloons.  Scarcely  had  the  savage  cruelty 
commenced  when  the  other  gates  were  throAvn  open,  and 
the  cavalry,  with  the  fearful  hordes  of  the  Croats,  poured 
in  upon  the  devoted  inhabitants. 


158  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

Here  commenced  a  scene  of  horrors  for  which  history 
has    no   language,   poetry   no   pencil.     Neither   innocent 
childhood,  nor  helpless  old  age  ;  neither  youth,  sex,  rank, 
nor   beauty   could   disarm  the   fury  of    the   conquerors. 
Wives    were    abused    in    the    arms   of    their   husbands, 
daughters  at  the  feet  of  their  parents ;  and  the  defence- 
less sex  exposed  to  the  double  sacrifice  of  virtue  and  life. 
No  situation,  however  obscure,  or  however  sacred,  escaped 
the  rapacity  of  the  enemy.     In  a  single  church  fifty-three 
women    were    found    beheaded.      The    Croats    amused 
themselves  Avith  throwing  children  into  the  flames  ;  Pap- 
penheim's  Walloons  with  stabbing  infants  at  the  mother's 
breast.      Some  officers  of   the  League,   horror-struck   at 
this  dreadful  scene,  ventured  to  remind  Tilly  that  he  had 
it  in  his  power  to  stop  the  carnage.    "  Return  in  an  hour," 
was  his  answer ;  "  I  will  see  what  I  can  do  ;  the  soldier 
must  have  some  reward  for  his  dangers  and  toils."    These 
horrors  lasted  with  unabated  fury,  till  at  last  the  smoke 
and  flames  proved  a  check  to  the  plunderers.     To  aug- 
ment the  confusion,  and  to  divert  the  resistance  of  the 
inhabitants,  the  imperialists  had,  in  the  commencement  of 
the  assault,  fired  the  town  in  several  places.     The  wind 
rising  rapidly,  spread  the  flames,  till  the  blaze  became 
universal.     Fearful,  indeed,  was  the  tumult  amid  clouds 
of  smoke,  heaps  of  dead  bodies,  the  clash  of  swords,  the 
crash  of  falling  ruins,  and  streams  of  blood.     The  atmos- 
phere glowed  ;    and  the  intolerable  heat  forced  at  last 
even  the  murderers  to  take  refuge  in  their  camp.     In  less 
than  twelve  hours  this  strong,   populous,  and  flourishing 
city,  one  of  the  finest  in  Germany,  was  reduced  to  ashes, 
with  the  exception  of  two  churches  and  a  few  houses. 
The   Administrator,   Christian   William,   after   receiving 
several  wounds,  was  taken  prisoner,  with  three  of  the 
burgomasters ;  most  of  the  officers  and  magistrates  had 
already  met  an  enviable  death.     The  avarice  of  the  officers 
had  saved  four  hundred  of  the  richest  citizens  in  the  hope 
of  extorting  from  them  an  exorbitant  ransom.     But  this 
humanity   was  confined   to  the  officers   of    the  League, 
whom  the  ruthless  barbarity  of  the  Imperialists  caused  to 
be  regarded  as  guardian  angels. 

Scarcely  had  the  fury  of  the  flames  abated  when  the 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS*    WAR.  159 

Imperialists  returned  to  renew  the  pillage  amid  the  ruins 
and  ashes  of  the  town.  Many  were  suffocated  by  the 
smoke ;  many  found  rich  booty  in  the  cellars,  where  the 
citizens  had  concealed  their  more  valuable  effects.  On 
the  13th  of  May  Tilly  himself  appeared  in  the  town, 
after  the  streets  had  been  cleared  of  ashes  and  dead 
bodies.  Horrible  and  revolting  to  humanity  was  the 
scene  that  presented  itself.  The  living  crawling  from 
xmder  the  dead,*  children  wandering  about  with  heart- 
rending cries,  calling  for  their  parents ;  and  infants  still 
sucking  the  breasts  of  their  lifeless  mothers.  More  than 
six  thousand  bodies  were  thrown  into  the  Elbe  to  clear 
the  streets ;  a  much  greater  number  had  been  consumed 
by  the  flames.  The  whole  number  of  the  slain  was  reck- 
oned at  not  less  than  thirty  thousand. 

The  entrance  of  the  general,  which  took  place  on  the 
14th,  put  a  stop  to  the  plunder,  and  saved  the  few  who 
had  hitherto  contrived  to  escape.  About  a  thousand 
peojile  were  taken  out  of  the  cathedral,  where  they  had 
remained  three  days  and  two  nights  without  food,  and  in 
momentary  fear  of  death.  Tilly  promised  them  quarter, 
and  commanded  bread  to  be  distributed  among  them. 
The  next  day  a  solemn  mass  was  performed  in  the  cathe- 
dral, and  Te  Deum  sung  amidst  the  discharge  of  artillery. 
The  impei'ial  general  rode  through  the  streets,  that  he 
might  be  able  as  an  eye-witness  to  inform  his  master  that 
no  such  conquest  had  been  made  since  the  destruction  of 
Troy  and  Jerusalem.  Nor  was  this  an  exaggeration, 
whether  we  consider  the  greatness,  importance,  and  pros- 
perity of  the  city  razed,  or  the  fury  of  its  raA^agers, 

In  Germany  the  tidings  of  the  dreadful  fate  of  Magde- 
burg caused  triumphant  joy  to  the  Roman  Catholics, 
while  it  spread  terror  and  consternation  among  the  Prot- 
estants. Loudly  and  generally  they  complained  against 
the  King  of  Sweden,  who,  with  so  strong  a  force,  and  in 
the  very  neighborhood,  had  left  an  allied  city  to  its  fate. 
Even  the  most  reasonable  deemed  his  inaction  inexplicable  ; 
and  lest  he  should  lose  irretrievably  the  good-will  of  the 
people,  for  whose  deliverance  he  had  engaged  in  this  war, 
Gustavus  was  under  the  necessity  of  publishing  to  the 
world  a  justification  of  his  own  conduct. 


160  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

He  had  attacked,  and  on  the  16th  April,  carried  Lands- 
berg,  when  he  was  apprised  of  the  danger  of  Magdeburg. 
He  resolved  immediately  to  march  to  the  relief  of  that 
town ;  and  he  moved  with  all  his  cavalry,  and  ten  regi- 
ments of  infantry  towards  the  Spree.  But  the  position 
which  he  held  in  Germany  made  it  necessary  that  he 
should  not  move  forward  without  securing  his  rear.  In 
traversing  a  country  where  he  was  surrounded  by  sus- 
picious friends  and  dangerous  enemies,  and  where  a  single 
premature  movement  might  cut  off  his  communication 
with  his  own  kingdom,  the  utmost  vigilance  and  caution 
were  necessary.  The  Elector  of  Brandenburg  had  already 
opened  the  fortress  of  Custrin  to  the  flying  Imperialists, 
and  closed  the  gates  against  their  pursuers.  If  now  Gus- 
tavus  should  fail  in  his  attack  upon  Tilly  the  Elector 
might  again  open  his  fortresses  to  the  Imperialists,  and 
the  king,  with  an  enemy  both  in  front  and  rear,  would  be 
irrecoverably  lost.  In  order  to  prevent  this  contingency 
he  demanded  that  the  Elector  should  allow  him  to  hold 
the  fortresses  of  Custrin  and  Spandau  till  the  siege  of 
Magdeburg  should  be  raised. 

Nothing  could  be  more  reasonable  than  this  demand. 
The  services  which  Gustavus  had  lately  rendered  the 
Elector,  by  expelling  the  Imperialists  from  Brandenburg, 
claimed  his  gratitude,  while  the  past  conduct  of  the 
Swedes  in  Germany  entitled  them  to  confidence.  But  by 
the  surrender  of  his  fortresses,  the  Elector  M'ould  in  some 
measure  make  the  King  of  Sweden  master  of  his  country ; 
besides  that,  by  such  a  step,  he  must  at  once  break  with 
the  Emperor,  and  expose  his  States  to  his  future  ven- 
geance. The  Elector's  struggle  with  himself  was  long 
and  violent,  pusillanimity  and  self-interest  for  awhile  pre- 
vailed. Unmoved  by  the  fate  of  Magdeburg,  cold  in  the 
cause  of  religion  and  the  liberties  of  Germany,  he  saw 
nothing  but  his  own  danger ;  and  this  anxiety  was  greatly 
stimulated  by  his  minister  Van  Schwartzenburgh,  who  was 
secretly  in  the  pay  of  Austria.  In  the  meantime  the 
Swedish  troops  approached  Berlin,  and  the  king  took  up 
his  residence  with  the  Elector.  When  he  witnessed  the 
timorous  hesitation  of  that  prince,  he  could  not  restrain 
his  indignation  :  "  My  road  is  to  Magdeburg,"  said  he ; 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  161 

"  not  for  ray  own  advantage,  but  for  that  of  the  Protestant 
religion.  If  no  one  will  stand  by  me  I  shall  immediately 
i-etreat,  conclude  a  peace  with  the  Emperor,  and  return  to 
Stockholm.  I  am  convinced  that  Ferdinand  will  readily 
grant  me  whatever  conditions  I  may  require.  But  if 
Magdeburg  is  once  lost,  and  the  Emperor  relieved  from 
all  fear  of  me,  then  it  is  for  you  to  look  to  yourselves  and 
the  consequences."  This  timely  threat,  and  perhaps,  too, 
the  aspect  of  the  Swedish  army,  which  was  strong  enough 
to  obtain  by  force  what  was  refused  to  entreaty,  brought 
at  last  the  Elector  to  his  senses,  and  Spandau  was  deliv- 
ered into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes. 

The  king  had  now  two  routes  to  Magdeburg ;  one  west- 
ward led  through  an  exhausted  country,  and  filled  with 
the  enemy's  troops,  who  might  dispute  with  him  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Elbe  ;  the  other  more  to  the  southward,  by 
Dessau  and  Wittenberg,  where  bridges  were  to  be  found 
for  crossing  the  Elbe,  and  where  supplies  could  easily  be 
drawn  from  Saxony.  But  he  could  not  avail  himself  of 
the  latter  without  the  consent  of  the  Electoi-,  whom  Gus- 
tavus  had  crood  reason  to  distrust.  Before  setting:  out  on 
his  march,  therefore,  he  demanded  from  that  prince  a  free 
passage  and  liberty  for  purchasing  provisions  for  his 
troops.  His  application  was  refused,  and  no  remonstrances 
could  prevail  on  the  Elector  to  abandon  his  system  of 
neutrality.  While  the  point  was  still  in  dispute  the  news 
of  the  dreadful  fate  of  Magdeburg  arrived. 

Tilly  announced  its  fall  to  the  Protestant  princes  in 
the  tone  of  a  conquerer,  and  lost  no  time  in  making  the 
most  of  the  general  consternation.  The  influence  of  the 
Emperor,  which  had  sensibly  declined  during  the  rapid 
progress  of  Gustavus,  after  this  decisive  blow  rose  higher 
than  ever ;  and  the  change  was  speedily  visible  in  the 
imperious  tone  he  adopted  towards  the  Protestant  states. 
The  decrees  of  the  Confederation  of  Leipzig  were  an- 
nulled by  a  proclamation,  the  Convention  itself  suppressed 
by  an  imperial  decree,  and  all  the  refractory  states  threat- 
ened with  the  fate  of  Magdeburg.  As  the  executor  of 
this  imperial  mandate,  Tilly  immediately  ordered  troops 
to  march  against  the  Bishop  of  Bremen,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Confederacy,  and  had  himself  enlisted  soldiers. 


162  THE   THIRTY   YEARS*   WAR. 

The  terrified  bishop  immediately  gave  up  his  forces  to 
Tilly,  and  signed  the  revocation  of  the  acts  of  the  Confed- 
eration. An  imperial  army,  which  had  lately  returned 
from  Italy,  under  the  command  of  Count  Furstenberg, 
acted  in  the  saine  manner  towards  the  Administrator  of 
Wirtemberg.  The  duke  was  compelled  to  submit  to  the 
Edict  of  Restitution,  and  all  the  decrees  of  the  Emperor, 
and  even  to  pay  a  monthly  subsidy  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  maintenance  of  the  imperial  troops. 
Similar  burdens  were  inflicted  upon  Ulm  and  Nuremberg, 
and  the  entire  circles  of  Franconia  and  Swabia.  The  hand 
of  the  Emperor  was  stretched  in  terror  over  all  Germany. 
The  sudden  preponderance,  more  in  appearance,  perhaps, 
than  in  reality,  which  he  had  obtained  by  this  blow, 
cai-ried  him  beyond  the  bounds  even  of  the  moderation 
which  he  had  hitherto  observed,  and  misled  him  into 
hasty  and  violent  measures,  which  at  last  turned  the 
wavering  resolution  of  the  German  princes  in  favor  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus.  Injurious  as  the  immediate  conse- 
quences of  the  fall  of  Magdeburg  were  to  the  Protestant 
cause,  its  remoter  effects  were  most  advantageous.  The 
past  surprise  made  way  for  active  resentment,  despair 
inspired  courage,  and  the  German  freedom  rose,  like  a 
phoenix,  from  the  ashes  of  Magdeburg. 

Among  the  princes  of  the  Leipzig  Confederation  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  were  the 
most  powerful ;  and,  until  they  were  disarmed,  the  uni- 
versal authority  of  the  Emperor  was  unconfirmed.  Against 
the  Landgrave,  therefore,  Tilly  first  directed  his  attack, 
and  marched  straight  from  Magdeburg  into  Thuringia. 
During  this  march  the  territories  of  Saxe,  Ernest,  and 
Schwartzburg  were  laid  waste,  and  Frankenhausen  plun- 
dered before  the  very  eyes  of  Tilly,  and  laid  in  ashes  with 
impunity.  The  unfortunate  peasant  paid  dear  for  his 
master's  attachment  to  the  interests  of  Sweden.  Erfurt, 
the  key  of  Saxony  and  Franconia,  was  threatened  with  a 
siege,  but  redeemed  itself  by  a  voluntary  contribution  of 
money  and  provisions.  From  thence  Tilly  despatched 
his  emissaries  to  the  Landgrave,  demanding  of  him  the 
immediate  disbanding  of  his  army,  a  renunciation  of  the 
league  of  Leipzig,  the  reception  of  imperial  garrisons  into 


THE  THIKTY   YEARS'    WAR.  163 

his  territories  and  fortresses,  with  the  necessary  contri- 
butions, and  the  declaration  of  friendship  or  hostiUty. 
Such  was  the  treatment  Avhich  a  prince  of  the  Empire 
was  compelled  to  submit  to  from  a  servant  of  the 
Emperor.  But  these  extravagant  demands  acquired  a 
formidable  weight  from  the  power  which  supported 
them ;  and  the  dreadful  fate  of  Magdeburg,  still  fresh  in 
the  memory  of  the  Landgrave,  tended  still  farther  to 
enforce  them.  Admirable,  therefore,  was  the  intrepidity 
of  the  Landgrave's  answer :  "  To  admit  foreign  troops 
into  his  capital  and  fortresses  the  Landgrave  is  not 
disposed ;  his  troops  he  requires  for  his  own  purposes ; 
as  for  an  attack,  he  can  defend  himself.  If  General  Tilly 
wants  money  or  provisions,  let  him  go  to  Munich,  where 
there  is  plenty  of  both."  The  irruption  of  two  bodies  of 
imperial  ti'oops  into  Hesse  Cassel  was  the  immediate 
result  of  this  spirited  reply,  but  the  Landgrave  gave 
them  so  warm  a  reception  that  they  could  effect  nothing ; 
and  just  as  Tilly  was  preparing  to  follow  with  his  whole 
army,  to  punish  the  unfortunate  country  for  the  firmness 
of  its  sovereign,  the  movements  of  the  King  of  Sweden 
recalled  him  to  another  quarter. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  learned  the  fall  of  Magdeburg 
with  deep  regret;  and  the  demand  now  made  by  the 
Elector,  George  William,  in  terms  of  their  agreement,  for 
the  restoration  of  Spandau,  greatly  increased  this  feeling. 
The  loss  of  Magdeburg  had  rather  augmented  than 
lessened  the  reasons  which  made  the  possession  of  this 
fortress  so  desirable ;  and  the  nearer  became  the  necessity 
of  a  decisive  battle  between  himself  and  Tilly,  the  more 
unwilling  he  felt  to  abandon  the  only  place  which,  in  the 
event  of  a  defeat,  could  insure  him  a  refuge.  After  a 
vain  endeavor  by  entreaties  and  representations  to  bring 
over  the  Elector  to  his  views,  whose  coldness  and  luke- 
warmness  daily  increased,  he  gave  orders  to  his  general  to 
evacuate  Spandau,  but  at  the  same  time  declared  to  the 
Elector  that  he  would  henceforth  regard  him  as  an 
enemy. 

To  give  weight  to  this  declaration,  he  appeared  with 
his  whole  force  before  Berlin,  "I  will  not  be  worse 
treated  that  the  imperial  generals,"  was  his  reply  to  the 


164  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

ambassadors  whom  the  bewildered  Elector  despatched  to 
his  camp.  "Your  master  has  received  them  into  his 
territories,  furnished  them  with  all  necessary  supplies, 
ceded  to  them  every  place  which  they  required,  and  yet, 
by  all  these  concessions  he  could  not  prevail  upon  them 
to  treat  his  subjects  with  common  humanity.  All  that  I 
require  of  him  is  security,  a  moderate  sum  of  money,  and 
provisions  for  my  troops ;  in  return  I  promise  to  protect 
his  country,  and  to  keep  the  war  at  a  distance  from  him. 
On  these  points,  however,  I  must  insist ;  and  my  brother, 
the  Elector,  must  instantly  determine  to  have  me  as  a 
friend,  or  to  see  his  capital  plundered."  This  decisive 
tone  produced  a  due  impression  ;  and  the  cannon  pointed 
against  the  town  put  an  e:id  to  the  doubts  of  George 
William.  In  a  few  days,  a  treaty  was  signed,  by  which 
the  Elector  engaged  to  furnish  a  monthly  subsidy  of 
thirty  thousand  dollars,  to  leave  Spandau  in  the  king's 
hands,  and  to  open  Custrin  at  all  times  to  the  Swedish 
troops.  This  now  open  alliance  of  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg with  the  Swedes  excited  no  less  displeasure  at 
Vienna  than  did  formerly  the  similar  procedure  of  the 
Duke  of  Pomerania ;  but  the  changed  fortune  which  now 
attended  his  arms  obliged  the  Emperor  to  confine  his 
resentment  to  words. 

The  king's  satisfaction,  on  this  favorable  event,  was 
increased  by  the  agreeable  intelligence  that  Griefswald, 
the  only  fortress  which  the  Imperialists  still  held  in 
Pomerania,  had  surrendered,  and  that  the  whole  country 
was  now  free  of  the  enemy.  He  appeared  once  more  in 
this  duchy,  and  was  gratified  at  the  sight  of  the  general 
joy  which  he  had  caused  to  the  people.  A  year  had 
"elapsed  since  Gustavus  first  entered  Germany,  and  this 
event  was  now  celebrated  by  all  Pomerania  as  a  national 
festival.  Shortly  before  the  Czar  of  Moscow  had  sent 
ambassadors  to  congratulate  him,  to  renew  his  alliance, 
and  even  to  offer  him  troops.  He  had  great  reason  to 
rejoice  at  the  friendly  disposition  of  Russia,  as  it  was 
indispensable  to  his  interests  that  Sweden  itself  should 
remain  undisturbed  by  any  dangerous  neighbor  during 
the  war  in  Avhich  he  himself  was  engaged.  Soon  after 
his  queen,  Maria  Eleonora,  landed  in  Pomerania,  with  a 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  165 

reinforcement  of  eight  thousand  Swedes ;  and  the  arrival 
of  six  thousand  Enolish,  under  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton, 
requires  more  particular  notice,  because  this  is  all  that 
history  mentions  of  the  English  during  the  Thirty  Year's 
War. 

During  Tilly's  expedition  into  Thuringia,  Pappenheim 
commanded  in  Magdeburg;  but  was  unable  to  prevent 
the  Swedes  from  crossing  the  Elbe  at  various  points,  rout- 
ing some  imperial  detachments,  and  seizing  several  posts. 
He  himself,  alarmed  at  the  approach  of  the  King  of 
Sweden,  anxiously  recalled  Tilly,  and  prevailed  upon 
him  to  return  by  rapid  marches  to  Magdeburg.  Tilly 
encamped  on  this  side  of  the  river  at  Wolmerstadt ; 
Gustavus  on  the  same  side,  near  Werben,  not  far  from 
the  confluence  of  the  Havel  and  the  Elbe.  His  very 
arrival  portended  no  good  to  Tilly.  The  Swedes  routed 
three  of  his  regimer.ts  which  were  posted  in  villages  at 
some  distance  from  the  main  body,  carried  off  half  their 
baggage,  and  burned  the  remainder.  Tilly  in  vain  ad- 
vanced within  cannon-shot  of  the  king's  camp,  and  offered 
him  battle.  Gustavus,  weaker  by  one-half  than  his  adver- 
saiy,  prudently  declined  it ;  and  his  position  was  too 
strong  for  an  attack.  Nothing  more  ensued  but  a  distant 
cannonade,  and  a  few  skirmishes,  in  which  the  Swedes 
had  invariably  the  advantage.  In  his  retreat  to  Wolmer- 
stadt, Tilly's  army  was  weakened  by  numerous  desertions. 
Fortune  seemed  to  have  forsaken  him  since  the  carnage 
of  Magdeburg. 

The  King  of  Sweden,  on  the  contrary,  was  followed  by 
uninterrupted  success.  WTiile  he  himself  was  encamjied 
ill  Werben,  the  whole  of  Mecklenburg,  Avith  the  exceptiou 
of  a  few  towns,  was  conquered  by  his  General  Tott  and 
the  Duke  Adolphus  Frederick  ;  and  he  enjoyed  the  satis- 
faction of  reinstating  both  dukes  in  their  dominions.  He 
proceeded  in  person  to  Gustrow,  where  the  reinstatement 
was  solemnly  to  take  place,  to  give  additional  dignity  to 
the  ceremony  by  his  presence.  The  two  dukes,  with 
their  deliverer  between  them,  and  attended  by  a  splendid 
train  of  princes,  made  a  public  entry  into  the  city,  which 
the  joy  of  their  subjects  converted  into  an  affecting 
solemnity.     Soon  after  his  return  to  Werben,  the  Land- 


166  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

grave  of  Hesse  Cassel  appeared  in  his  camp,  to  conclude 
an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance ;  the  first  sovereign 
prince  in  Germany  who  voluntary  and  openly  declared 
against  the  Emperor,  though  not  wholly  uninfluenced  by 
strong  motives.  The  Landgrave  bound  himself  to  act 
against  the  king's  enemies  as  his  own,  to  open  to  him  his 
towns  and  territory,  and  to  furnish  his  army  with  pro- 
visions and  necessaries.  The  king,  on  the  other  hand, 
declared  himself  his  ally  and  protector ;  and  engaged  to 
conclude  no  peace  with  the  Emperor  without  first  obtain- 
ing for  the  Landgrave  a  full  redress  of  grievances.  Both 
parties  honorably  performed  their  agreement.  Hesse 
Cassel  adhered  to  the  Swedish  alliance  during  the  whole 
of  this  tedious  war ;  and  at  the  peace  of  Westphalia  had 
no  reason  to  regret  the  friendship  of  Sweden. 

Tilly,  from  whom  this  bold  step  on  the  part  of  the 
Landgrave  was  not  long  concealed,  despatched  Count 
Fugger  with  several  regiments  against  him ;  and  at  the 
same  time  endeavored  to  excite  his  subjects  to  rebellion 
by  inflammatory  letters.  But  these  made  as  little  impres- 
sion as  his  troops,  which  subsequently  failed  him  so 
decidedly  at  the  battle  of  Breitenfeld.  The  Estates 
of  Hesse  could  not  for  a  moment  hesitate  between  their 
oppressor  and  their  protector. 

But  the  imperial  general  was  far  more  disturbed  by 
the  equivocal  conduct  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who,  in 
defiance  of  the  imperial  prohibition,  continued  his  prepa- 
rations, and  adhered  to  the  confederation  at  Leipzig. 
At  this  conjuncture,  when  the  proximity  of  the  King 
of  Sweden  made  a  decisive  battle  ere  long  inevitable,  it 
appeared  extremely  dangerous  to  leave  Saxony  in  arms, 
and  ready  in  a  moment  to  declare  for  the  enemy.  Tilly 
had  just  received  a  reinforcement  of  twenty-five  thousand 
veteran  troops  under  Furstenberg,  and,  confident  in  his 
strengtli,  he  hoped  either  to  disarm  the  Elector  by  the 
mere  terror  of  his  arrival,  or  at  least  to  conquer  him 
with  little  difiiculty.  Before  quitting  his  camp  at  Wol- 
merstadt,  he  commanded  the  Elector,  by  a  special  mes- 
senger, to  open  his  territories  to  the  imperial  _  troops ; 
either  to  disband  his  own  or  to  join  them  to  the  imperial 
army;    and   to   assist,  in   conjunction  with  himself,  in 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  167 

driving  the  King  of  Sweden  out  of  Germany.  While 
he  reminded  him  that,  of  all  the  German  states,  Saxony- 
had  hitherto  been  most  respected,  he  threatened  it,  in 
case  of  refusal,  with  the  most  destructive  ravages. 

But  Tilly  had  chosen  an  unfavorable  moment  for  so 
imperious  a  requisition.  The  ill-treatment  of  his  religious 
and  political  confederates,  the  destruction  of  Magde- 
burg, the  excesses  of  the  Imperialists  in  Lusatia,  all  com- 
bined to  incense  the  Elector  against  the  Emperor.  The 
approach,  too,  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  (however  slender  his 
claims  were  to  the  protection  of  that  prince)  tended  to 
fortify  his  resolution.  He  accordingly  forbade  the  quar- 
tering of  the  imperial  soldiers  in  his  territories,  and 
announced  his  firm  determination  to  persist  in  his  warlike 
preparations.  However  surprised  he  should  be,  he  added, 
"  To  see  an  imperial  army  on  its  march  against  his  terri- 
tories, when  that  army  had  enough  to  do  in  watching  the 
operations  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  nevertheless  he  did 
not  expect,  instead  of  the  promised  and  well-merited 
rewards,  to  be  repaid  with  ingratitude  and  the  ruin  of 
his  country."  To  Tilly's  deputies,  who  were  entertained 
in  a  princely  style,  he  gave  a  still  plainer  answer  on  the 
occasion.  "  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  I  perceive  that  the 
Saxon  confectionery,  which  has  been  so  long  kept  back, 
is  at  length  to  be  set  upon  the  table.  But  as  it  is  usual 
to  mix  it  with  nuts  and  garnish  of  all  kinds,  take  care 
of  your  teeth." 

Tilly  instantly  broke  up  his  camp,  and,  with  the  most 
frightful  devastation,  advanced  upon  Halle ;  from  this 
place  he  renewed  his  demands  on  the  Elector,  in  a  tone 
still  more  urgent  and  threatening.  The  previous  policy 
of  this  prince,  both  from  his  own  inclination,  and  the 
persuasions  of  his  corrupt  ministers,  had  been  to  promote 
the  interests  of  the  Emperor,  even  at  the  expense  of  his 
own  sacred  obligations,  and  but  very  little  tact  had 
hitherto  kept  him  inactive.  All  this  but  renders  more 
astonishing  the  infatuation  of  the  Emperor  or  his  minis- 
ters in  abandoning,  at  so  critical  a  moment,  the  policy 
they  had  hitherto  adopted,  and,  by  extreme  measures, 
incensing  a  prince  so  easily  led.  Was  this  the  very 
object  which  Tilly  had  in  view?     Was  it  his  purpose 


168  THE   THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

to  convert  an  equivocal  friend  into  an  open  enemy,  and 
thus  to  relieve  himself  from  the  necessity  of  that  indul- 
gence in  the  treatment  of  this  prince  Avhich  the  secret 
instructions  of  the  Emperor  had  hitherto  imposed  upon 
him?  Or  was  it  tlie  Emperor's  wish,  by  driving  the 
Elector  to  open  hostilities,  to  get  quit  of  his  obligations 
to  hirn,  and  so  cleverly  to  break  off  at  once  the  difficulty 
of  a  reckoning  ?  In  either  case  we  must  be  equally  sur- 
prised at  the  daring  j^i'esumption  of  Tilly,  who  hesitated 
not,  in  presence  of  one  formidable  enemy,  to  provoke 
another ;  and  at  his  negligence  in  permitting,  without 
opposition,  the  union  of  the  two. 

The  Saxon  Elector,  rendered  desperate  by  the  entrance 
of  Tilly  into  his  territories,  threw  himself,  though  not 
without  a  violent  struggle,  under  the  protection  of 
Sweden. 

Immediately  after  dismissing  Tilly's  first  embassy,  he  ' 
had  despatched  ais  field-marshal  Ai'nheim  in  all  haste  to 
the  camp  of  Gustavus,  to  solicit  the  prompt  assistance  of 
that  monarch  whom  he  had  so  long  neglected.  The  king 
concealed  the  inward  satisfaction  he  felt  at  this  long 
wished  for  result.  "  I  am  sorry  for  the  Elector,"  said  he, 
with  dissembled  coldness,  to  the  ambassador ;  "  had  he 
heeded  my  repeated  remonstrances  his  country  would 
never  have  seen  the  face  of  an  enemy,  and  Magdeburg 
would  not  have  fallen.  Now,  when  necessity  leaves  him 
no  alternative,  he  has  recourse  to  my  assistance.  But 
tell  him,  that  I  cannot,  for  the  sake  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  ruin  my  own  cause  and  that  of  my  confederates. 
What  pledge  have  I  for  the  sincerity  of  a  prince  whose 
minister  is  in  the  pay  of  Austria,  and  Avho  will  abandon 
me  as  soon  as  the  Emperor  flatters  him,  and  withdraws 
his  troops  from  his  frontiers  ?  Tilly,  it  is  true,  has 
received  a  strong  reinforcement ;  but  this  shall  not  pre^ 
vent  me  from  meeting  him  with  confidence,  as  soon  as  I 
have  covered  my  rear." 

The  Saxon  minister  could  make  no  other  reply  to  these 
reproaches  than  that  it  was  best  to  bury  the  past  in 
oblivion. 

He  pressed  the  king  to  name  the  conditions  on  which  he 
would  afford  assistance  to  Saxony,  and  offered  to  guar- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  169 

antee  their  acceptance.  "I  require,"  said  Gustavus, 
"  tliat  the  Elector  shall  cede  to  me  the  fortress  of  Wit- 
tenberg, deliver  to  me  his  eldest  sons  as  hostages,  furnish 
my  troops  with  three  months'  pay,  and  deliver  up  to  me 
the  traitors  among  his  ministry." 

"  Not  Wittenberg  alone,"  said  the  Elector,  when  he 
received  this  answer,  and  hurried  back  his  minister  to 
the  Swedish  camp,  "  not  Wittenberg  alone,  but  Torgau, 
and  all  Saxony,  shall  be  open  to  him  ;  my  whole  family 
shall  be  his  hostages,  and  if  that  is  insufficient,  I  will 
place  myself  in  his  hands.  Return  and  inform  him  I  am 
ready  to  deliver  to  him  any  traitors  he  shall  name,  to 
furnish  his  army  with  the  money  he  requires,  and  to 
venture  my  life  and  fortune  in  the  good  cause. 

The  king  had  only  desired  to  test  the  sincerity  of  the 
Elector's  new  sentiments.  Convinced  of  it,  he  now  re- 
tracted these  harsh  demands.  "  The  distrust,"  he  said, 
"  which  was  shown  to  myself  when  advancing  to  the  relief 
of  Magdeburg  had  naturally  excited  mine ;  the  Elector's 
present  confidence  demands  a  return.  I  am  satisfied, 
provided  he  grants  my  army  one  month's  pay,  and  even  for 
his  advance  1  hope  to  indemnify  him." 

Immediately  upon  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  the 
king  crossed  the  Elbe,  and  next  day  joined  the  Saxons. 
Instead  of  preventing  this  junction,  Tilly  had  advanced 
against  Leipzig,  which  he  summoned  to  receive  an 
imperial  garrison.  In  hopes  of  speedy  relief,  Hans 
Von  der  Pforta,  the  commandant,  made  preparations  for 
his  defence,  and  laid  the  suburb  towards  Halle  in  ashes. 
But  the  ill  condition  of  the  fortifications  made  resistance 
vain,  and  on  the  second  day  tlie  gates  were  opened.  Tilly 
had  fixed  his  headquarters  in  the  house  of  a  grave-digger, 
the  only  one  still  standing  in  the  suburb  of  Halle;  here 
he  signed  the  capitulation,  and  here,  too,  he  arranged 
his  attack  on  the  King  of  Sweden.  Tilly  grew  pale  at 
the  representation  of  the  death's-head  and  cross-bones 
with  which  the  proprietor  had  decorated  his  house  ;  and, 
contrary  to  all  expectations,  Leipzig  experienced  moderate 
treatment. 

Meanwhile,  a  council  of  war  was  held  at  Torgau 
between  the  King  of  Sweden  and  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 


170  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

at  which  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  was  also  present. 
The  resolution  which  should  now  be  adopted  was  to 
decide  irrevocably  the  fate  of  Germany  and  the  Prot- 
estant religion,  the  happiness  of  nations  and  the  destiny 
of  their  princes.  The  anxiety  of  suspense  which,  before 
every  decisive  resolve,  oppresses  even  the  hearts  of 
heroes,  appeared  now  for  a  moment  to  overshadow  the 
great  mind  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  "  If  we  decide  upon 
battle,"  said  he,  "  the  stake  will  be  nothing  less  than  a 
crown  and  two  electorates.  Fortune  is  changeable,  and 
the  inscrutable  decrees  of  Heaven  may,  for  our  sins,  give 
the  victory  to  our  enemies.  My  kingdom,  it  is  true,  even 
after  the  loss  of  ray  life  and  my  army,  would  still  have  a 
hope  left.  Far  removed  from  the  scene  of  action,  de- 
fended by  a  powerful  fleet,  a  Avell-guarded  frontier,  and  a 
warlike  population,  it  Avould  at  least  be  safe  from  the 
worst  consequences  of  a  defeat.  But  what  chances  of 
escape  are  there  for  you,  with  an  enemy  so  close  at 
hand?"  Gustavus  Adolphus  displayed  the  modest  dif- 
fidence of  a  hero,  whom  an  overweening  belief  of  his  own 
strength  did  not  blind  to  the  greatness  of  his  danger ; 
John  George,  the  confidence  of  a  weak  man,  who  knows 
that  he  has  a  hero  by  his  side.  Impatient  to  rid  his 
territories  as  soon  as  possible  of  the  oppressive  presence 
of  two  armies,  he  burned  for  a  battle,  in  which  he  had 
no  former  laurels  to  lose.  He  was  ready  to  march  with 
his  Saxons  alone  against  Leipzig,  and  attack  Tilly.  At 
last  Gustavus  acceded  to  his  opinion  ;  and  it  was  resolved 
that  the  attack  should  be  made  without  delay,  before 
the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements,  which  were  on  their 
way,  under  Altringer  and  Tiefenbach.  The  united 
Swedish  and  Saxon  armies  now  crossed  the  Mulda, 
while  the  Elector  returned  homeward. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  September,  1631,  the 
hostile  armies  came  in  sight  of  each  other.  Tilly,  who, 
since  he  had  neglected  the  opportunity  of  overpowering 
the  Saxons  before  their  union  with  the  Swedes,  was  dis- 
posed to  await  the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements,  had 
taken  up  a  strong  and  advantageous  position  not  far  from 
Leipzi<i',  where  he  expected  he  should  be  able  to  avoid  the 
battle.'    But  the  impetuosity  of  Pappenheim  obliged  him, 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  171 

as  soon  as  the  enemy  were  in  motion,  to  alter  his  plans, 
and  to  move  to  the  left,  in  the  direction  of  the  hills  which 
run  from  the  village  of  Wahren  towards  Lindenthal.  At 
the  foot  of  these  heights  his  array  was  drawn  up  in  a  sin- 
gle line,  and  liis  artillery  placed  upon  the  heights  behind, 
from  which  it  could  sweep  the  whole  extensive  plain  of 
Breitenfeld.  The  Swedish  and  Saxon  army  advanced  in 
two  columns,  having  to  pass  the  Lober  near  Podelwitz, 
in  Tilly's  front. 

To  defend  the  passage  of  this  rivulet,  Pappenheim  ad- 
vanced at  the  head  of  two  thousand  cuirassiers,  though 
after  great  reluctance  on  the  part  of  Tilly,  and  with  ex- 
press orders  not  to  commence  a  battle.  But,  in  disobe- 
dience to  this  command,  Pappenheim  attacked  the  van- 
guard of  the  Swedes,  and  after  a  brief  struggle  was  driven 
to  retreat.  To  check  the  progress  of  the  enemy,  he  set 
fire  to  Podelwitz,  which,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  two 
columns  from  advancing  and  forming  in  order  of  battle. 

On  the  right,  the  Swedes  drew  up  in  a  double  line,  the 
infantry  in  the  centre,  divided  into  such  small  battalions 
as  could  be  easily  and  rapidly  manoeuvred  Avithout  breaking 
their  order ;  the  cavalry  upon  their  wings,  divided  in  the 
same  manner  into  small  squadrons,  interspersed  with 
bodies  of  musqueteers,  so  as  both  to  give  an  appearance 
of  greater  numerical  force,  and  to  annoy  the  enemy's 
horse.  Colonel  Teufel  commanded  the  centre,  Gustavus 
Horn  the  left,  while  the  right  was  led  by  the  king  in 
person,  opposed  to  Count  Pappenheim. 

On  the  left,  the  Saxons  formed  at  a  considerable  distance 
from  the  Swedes,  by  the  advice  of  Gustavus,  which  was 
justified  by  the  event.  The  order  of  battle  had  been  ar- 
ranged between  the  Elector  and  his  field-marshal,  and 
the  king  was  content  with  merely  signifying  his  approval. 
He  was  anxious  apparently  to  separate  the  Swedish  prow- 
ess from  that  of  the  Saxons,  and  fortune  did  not  confound 
them. 

The  enemy  was  drawn  up  under  the  heights  towards 
the  west,  in  one  immense  line,  long  enough  to  outflank  the 
Swedish  army,  the  infantry  being  divided  in  large  bat- 
talions, the  cavalry  in  equally  unwieklly  squadrons.  The 
artillery  being  on  the  heights  behind,  the  range  of  its  fire 


172  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR 

was  over  the  heads  of  his  men.  From  this  position  of  his 
artillery  it  was  evident  that  Tilly's  purpose  was  to  await 
rather  than  to  attack  the  enemy ;  since  this  arrangement 
rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  do  so  without  exposing 
Lis  men  to  the  lire  of  his  own  cannons,  Tilly  himself  com- 
manded the  centre,  Count  Furstenberg  the  right  wing,  and 
Pappenheim  the  left.  The  united  troops  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  League  on  this  day  did  not  amount  to  thirty-four 
thousand  or  thirty-five  thousand  men;  the  Swedes  and 
Saxons  were  about  the  same  number.  But  had  a  million 
been  confronted  with  a  million  it  could  only  have  ren- 
dered the  action  more  bloody,  certainly  not  more  impor- 
tant and  decisive.  For  this  day  Gustavus  had  crossed  the 
Baltic  to  court  danger  in  a  distant  country,  and  expose 
his  crown  and  life  to  the  caprice  of  fortune.  The  two 
greatest  generals  of  the  time,  both  hitherto  invincible, 
were  now  to  be  matched  against  each  other  in  a  contest 
which  both  had  long  avoided  ;  and  on  this  field  of  battle 
the  hitherto  untarnished  laurels  of  one  leader  must  droop 
forever.  The  two  parties  in  Germany  had  beheld  the 
approach  of  this  day  with  fear  and  trembling;  and  the 
whole  age  awaited  with  deep  anxiety  its  issue,  and  pos- 
terity was  either  to  bless  or  deplore  it  forever. 

Tilly's  usual  intrepidity  and  resolution  seemed  to  for- 
sake hira  on  this  eventful  day.  He  had  formed  no  reg- 
ular plan  for  giving  battle  to  the  king,  and  he  displayed 
as  little  firmness  in  avoiding  it.  Contrary  to  his  own 
judgment,  Pappenheim  had  forced  him  to  action.  Doubts 
which  he  had  never  before  felt  struggled  in  his  bosom ; 
gloomy  forebodings  clouded  his  ever-open  brow;  the 
shade  of  Magdeburg  seemed  to  hover  over  him. 

A  cannonade  of  two  hours  commenced  the  battle ;  the 
wind,  which  was  from  the  west,  blew  thick  clouds  of 
smoke  and  dust  from  the  ncAvly-ploughed  and  parched 
fields  into  the  faces  of  the  Swedes.  This  compelled  the 
king  insensibly  to  wheel  northwards,  and  the  rapidity 
with  which  this  movement  was  executed  left  no  time  to 
the  enemy  to  ])revent  it. 

Tilly  at  last  left  his  heights,  and  began  the  first  attack 
upon  the  Swedes ;  but  to  avoid  their  hot  fire,  he  filed  off 
towards  the  right,  and  fell  upon  the  Saxons  with  such 


v-'^'^-^^V'/.-Sr 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  173 

impetuosity  tliat  their  line  was  broken,  and  the  whole 
army  thrown  into  confusion.  The  Elector  himself  retired 
to  Eilenburg,  though  a  few  regiments  still  maintained 
their  ground  upon  the  field,  and  by  a  bold  stand  saved 
the  honor  of  Saxony.  Scarcely  had  the  confusion  began 
ere  the  ^Croats  commenced  plundering,  and  messengers 
were  despatched  to  Munich  and  Vienna  with  the  news  of 
the  victory. 

Pappenheim  had  thrown  himself  with  the  whole  force 
of  his  cavalry  npon  the  right  wing  of  the  Swedes,  but 
without  beiuii'  able  to  make  it  waver.  The  kinaj  com- 
manded  here  in  person,  and  under  him  General  Banner. 
Seven  times  did  Pappenheim  renew  the  attack,  and  seven 
times  was  he  repulsed.  He  fled  at  last  with  great  loss, 
and  abandoned  the  field  to  his  conqueror. 

In  the  meantime,  Tilly,  having  routed  the  remainder 
of  the  Saxons,  attacked  with  his  victorious  troops  the  left 
wing  of  the  Swedes.  To  this  wing  the  king,  as  soon  as 
he  perceived  that  the  Saxons  were  thrown  into  disorder, 
had,  with  a  ready  foresight,  detached  a  reinforcement  of 
three  regiments  to  cover  its  flank,  which  the  flight  of  the 
Saxons  had  left  exposed.  Gustavus  Horn,  who  com- 
manded here,  showed  the  enemy's  cuirassiers  a  spirited 
resistance,  which  the  infantry,  interspersed  among  the 
squadrons  of  horse,  materially  assisted.  The  enemy  were 
already  beginning  to  relax  the  vigor  of  their  attack,  when 
Gustavus  Adolphus  appeared  to  terminate  the  contest. 
The  left  wing  of  the  Imperialists  had  been  routed ;  and 
the  king's  division,  having  no  longer  any  enemy  to 
oppose,  could  now  turn  their  arms  wherever  it  would  be 
to  the  most  advantage.  Wheeling,  therefore,  with  his 
right  wing  and  main  body  to  the  left,  he  attacked  the 
heights  on  which  the  enemy's  artillery  was  planted. 
Gaining  possession  of  them  in  a  short  time,  he  turned 
upon  the  enemy  the  full  fire  of  their  own  cannon. 

The  play  of  artillery  npon  their  flank,  and  the  terrible 
onslaught  of  the  Swedes  in  front,  threw  this  hitherto  in- 
vincible army  into  confusion.  A  sudden  reti'cat  was  the 
only  course  left  to  Tilly,  but  even  this  was  to  be  made 
through  the  midst  of  the  enemy.  The  whole  army  was 
in    disorder,  with   the  exception  of   four  regiments    of 


174  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

veteran  soldiers,  who  never  as  yet  had  fled  from  the  field, 
and  were  resolved  not  to  do  so  now.  Closing  their  ranks, 
they  broke  through  tlie  thickest  of  the  victorious  army, 
and  gained  a  small  thicket,  where  they  opposed  a  new 
front  to  the  Swedes,  and  maintained  their  resistance  till 
night,  when  their  number  was  reduced  to  six  hundred 
men.  With  them  lied  the  wreck  of  Tilly's  army,  and  the 
battle  was  decided. 

Amid  the  dead  and  the  wounded,  Gustavus  Adolphns 
threw  himself  on  his  knees;  and  the  first  joy  of  his 
victory  gushed  forth  in  fervent  prayer.  He  ordered  his 
cavalry  to  pursue  the  enemy  as  long  as  the  darkness  of 
the  night  would  permit.  The  pealing  of  the  alarm-bells 
set  the  inhabitants  of  all  the  neighboring  villages  in 
motion,  and  utterly  lost  was  the  unhappy  fugitive  who 
fell  into  their  hands.  The  king  encamped  with  the  rest 
of  his  army  between  the  field  of  battle  and  Leipzig,  as  it 
was  impossible  to  attack  the  town  the  same  night.  Seven 
thousand  of  the  enemy  were  killed  in  the  field,  and  more 
than  five  thousand  either  wounded  or  taken  prisoners. 
Their  whole  artillery  and  camp  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Swedes,  and  more  than  a  hundred  standjirds  and  colors 
were  taken.  Of  the  Saxons  about  two  thousand  had 
fallen,  w-hile  the  loss  of  the  Swedes  did  not  exceed  seven 
hundred.  The  rout  of  the  Imperialists  was  so  complete 
that  Tilly,  on  his  retreat  to  Halle  and  Halberstadt,  could 
not  rally  above  six  hundred  men,  or  Pappenheim  more 
than  one  thousand  four  hundred  —  so  rapidly  was  this 
formidable  army  dispersed  which  so  lately  was  the  terror 
of  Italy  and  Germany. 

Tilly  himself  owed  his  escape  merely  to  chance.  Ex- 
hausted by  his  wounds,  he  still  refused  to  surrender  to  a 
Swedish  captain  of  horse,  who  summoned  him  to  yield  ; 
but  who,  when  he  Avns  on  the  point  of  putting  him  to 
death,  was  himself  stretched  on  the  ground  by  a  timely 
j)istol-shot.  But  more  grievous  than  danger  or  wounds 
was  the  pain  of  surviving  his  reputation,  and  of  losing  in 
a  single  day  the  fruits  of  a  long  life.  All  former  victories 
were  as  nothing,  since  he  had  failed  in  gaining  the  one 
that  should  have  crowned  them  all.  Nothing  remained 
of  all  his  past  exploits  but  the  general  execration  which 


THE    TIIIKTY    YEARS'    WAR.  175 

had  followed  them.  From  this  period  he  never  recovered 
his  cheerfulness  or  his  good  fortune.  Even  his  last  con- 
solation, the  hope  of  revenge,  was  denied  to  him,  by  the 
express  command  of  the  Emperor  not  to  risk  a  decisive 
battle. 

The  disgrace  of  this  day  is  to  be  ascribed  principally  to 
three  mistakes :  his  planting  the  cannon  on  the  hills 
behind  him,  his  afterwards  abandoning  these  heights,  and 
his  allowing  the  enemy,  without  opposition,  to  form  in 
order  of  battle.  But  how  easily  might  those  mistakes 
have  been  rectified,  had  it  not  been  for  the  cool  presence 
of  mind  and  superior  genius  of  his  adversary ! 

Tilly  fled  from  Halle  to  Halberstadt,  where  he  scarcely 
allowed  time  for  the  cure  of  his  wounds  before  he  hurried 
towards  the  Weser  to  recruit  his  force  by  the  imperial 
garrisons  in  Lower  Saxony. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony  had  not  failed,  after  the  danger 
was  over,  to  appear  in  Gustavus'  camp.  The  king 
thanked  him  for  having  advised  a  battle  ;  and  the  Elector, 
charmed  at  his  friendly  reception,  promised  him,  in  the 
first  transports  of  joy,  the  Roman  crown.  Gustavus  set 
out  next  day  for  Merseburg,  leaving  the  Elector  to  recover 
Leipzig.  Five  thousand  Imperialists,  who  had  collected 
together  after  the  defeat,  and  whom  he  met  on  his  march, 
were  either  cut  in  pieces  or  taken  prisoners,  of  whom  again 
the  greater  part  entered  into  his  service.  Mersebnrg 
quickly  surrended  ;  Halle  was  soon  after  taken,  whither 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  after  making  himself  master  of 
Leipzig,  repaired  to  meet  the  king,  and  to  concert  their 
future  plan  of  operations. 

The  victory  Avas  gained,  but  only  a  prudent  use  of  it 
could  render  it  decisive.  The  imperial  armies  were 
totally  routed,  Saxony  free  from  the  enemy,  and  Tilly 
had  retired  into  Brunswick.  To  have  followed  hmi 
thither  would  have  been  to  renew  the  war  in  Lower 
Saxony,  which  had  scarcely  recovered  from  the  ravages 
of  the  last.  It  was  therefore  determined  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  enemy's  country,  which,  open  and  defenceless  as 
far  as  Vienna,  invited  attack.  On  their  right,  they 
might  fall  upon  the  territories  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
princes,  or  penetrate,  on  the  left,  into  the  hereditary  do- 


176  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

minions  of  Austria,  and  make  the  Emperor  tremble  in  his 
palace.  Both  plans  were  resolved  on ;  and  the  question 
that  now  remained  was  to  assign  its  respective  parts. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  at  the  head  of  a  victorious  army,  had 
little  resistance  to  appreliend  in  his  progress  from  Leipzig 
to  Prague,  Vienna,  and  Presburg.  As  to  Bohemia, 
Moravia,  Austria,  and  Hungary,  they  had  been  stripped 
of  their  defenders,  while  the  oppressed  Protestants  in 
these  countries  were  ripe  for  a  revolt.  Ferdinand  was 
no  longer  secure  in  his  capital ;  Vienna,  on  tlie  first  terror 
of  surprise,  would  at  once  open  its  gates.  The  loss  of  his 
territories  would  deprive  the  enemy  of  the  resources  by 
which  alone  the  war  could  be  maintained;  and  Ferdinand 
would,  in  all  probability,  gladly  accede,  on  the  hardest 
conditions,  to  a  peace  which  would  remove  a  formidable 
enemy  from  the  heart  of  his  dominions.  This  bold  plan 
of  operations  was  flattering  to  a  conqueror,  and  success 
perhaps  might  have  justified  it.  But  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
as  prudent  as  he  was  brave,  and  more  a  statesman  than  a 
conqueror,  rejected  it,  because  he  had  a  higher  end  in 
view,  and  would  not  trust  the  issue  either  to  bravery  or 
good  fortune  alone. 

By  marching  towards  Bohemia,  i'ranconia  and  the 
Upper  Rhine  would  be  left  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 
But  Tilly  had  already  began  to  recruit  his  shattered  army 
from  the  garrisons  in  Lower  Saxony,  and  was  likely  to  be 
at  the  head  of  a  formidable  force  upon  the  Weser,  and 
to  lose  no  time  in  marching  against  the  enemy.  To  so 
experienced  a  general  it  would  not  do  to  op))ose  an 
Arnheim,  of  whose  military  skill  the  battle  of  Leipzig 
had  afforded  but  equivocal  proof;  and  of  what  avail 
would  be  the  rapid  and  brilliant  career  of  the  king  in 
Bohemia  and  Austria  if  Tilly  should  recover  his  su- 
periority in  the  Empire,  animating  the  courage  of  the 
Koman  Catholics,  and  disarming,  by  a  new  series  of  vic- 
tories, the  allies  and  confederates  of  the  king?  What 
would  he  gain  by  expelling  tlie  Em]ieror  from  liis  heredi- 
tary dominions  if  Tilly  succeeded  in  conquering  for  that 
Emperor  the  rest  of  Germany?  Could  he  hope  to  reduce 
the  Em[)eror  more  than  had  been  done,  twelve  years 
before,  by  the  insurrection  of  Bohemia,  which  had  failed 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  177 

to  shake  the  firmness  or  exhaust  the  resotirces  of  that 
prince,  and  from  which  lie  had  risen  more  formidable 
than  ever  ? 

Less  brilliant,  but  more  solid,  were  the  advantages 
Avhich  he  had  to  expect  from  an  incursion  into  the  terri- 
tories of  the  League.  In  this  quarter  his  appearance  in 
arms  would  be  decisive.  At  this  very  conjuncture  the 
princes  were  assembled  in  a  Diet  at  Frankfort  to  deliber- 
ate upon  the  Edict  of  Ilestitution,  where  Ferdinand 
employed  all  his  artful  policy  to  persuade  the  intimidated 
Protestants  to  accede  to  a  speedy  and  disadvantageous 
arrangement.  The  advance 'of  their  protector  could 
alone  encourage  them  to  a  bold  resistance  and  disappoint 
the  Emperor's  designs.  Gustavus  Adolphus  hoped  by 
his  presence  to  unite'the  discontented  princes,  or  by  the 
terror  of  his  arms  to  detach  them  from  the  Emperor's 
party.  Here,  in  the  centre  of  Germany,  he  could  para- 
lyze the  nerves  of  the  imperial  power,  which,  without 
the  aid  of  the  League,  must  soon  fall ;  here,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  France,  he  could  watch  the  movements  of  a 
suspicious  ally;  and  however  important  to  his  secret 
views  it  was  to  cultivate  the  friendship  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  electors,  he  saw  the  necessity  of  making  himself 
first  of  all  master  of  their  fate,  in  order  to  establish,  by 
his  magnanimous  forbearance,  a  claim  to  their  gratitude. 

He  accordingly  chose  the  route  to  Franconia  and  the 
Rhine,  and  left  the  conquest  of  Bohemia  to  the  Elector 
of  Saxony. 


BOOK  IIL 


The  glorious  battle  of  Leipzig  effected  a  great  change 
in  the  conduct  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  as  well  as  in  the 
opinion  which  both  friends  and  foes  entertained  of  him. 
Successfully  had  he  confronted  the  greatest  general  of 
the  age,  and  had  matched  the  strength  of  his  tactics  and 
the  coura«4e  of  his  Swedes  against  the  elite  of  the  impe- 


178  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

rial  army,  the  most  experienced  troops  in  Europe.  From 
this  moment  he  felt  a  firm  confidence  in  his  own  powers; 
self-confidence  has  always  been  the  parent  of  great  actions. 
In  all  his  subsequent  operations  more  boldness  and  de- 
cision are  observable;  greater  determination,  even  amidst 
the  most  unfavorable  circumstances,  a  more  lofty  tone 
towards  his  adversaries,  a  more  dignified  bearing  towards 
his  allies,  and  even  in  his  clemency,  something  of  the 
forbearance  of  a  conqueror.  His  natural  courage  was 
farther  heightened  by  the  pious  ardor  of  his  imagination. 
He  saw  in  his  own  cause  that  of  heaven,  and  in  the  defeat 
of  Tilly  beheld  the  decisive  interference  of  Providence 
against  his  enemies,  and  in  himself  the  instrument  of 
divine  vengeance.  Leaving  his  crown  and  his  country 
far  behind  he  advanced  on  the  wings  of  victory  into  the 
heart  of  Germany,  which  for  centuries  had  seen  no  for- 
eign conqueror  within  its  bosom.  Tlie  warlike  spirit  of 
its  inhabitants,  the  vigilance  of  its  numerous  princes,  the 
artful  confederation  of  its  states,  the  number  of  its 
strong  castles,  its  many  and  broad  rivers  had  long  re- 
strained the  ambition  of  its  neighbors ;  and  frequently  as 
its  extensive  frontier  had  been  attacked,  its  interior  had 
been  free  from  invasion.  The  empire  had  hitherto  en- 
joyed the  equivocal  privilege  of  being  its  own  enemy, 
though  invincible  from  without.  Even  now  it  was 
merely  the  disunion  of  its  members  and  the  intolerance 
of  religious  zeal  that  paved  the  way  for  the  Swedish 
invader.  The  bond  of  union  between  the  states,  which 
alone  had  rendered  the  empire  invincible,  was  now  dis- 
solved ;  and  Gustavus  derived  from  Germany  itself  the 
]io\ver  by  which  he  subdued  it.  With  as  much  courage 
as  ])rudence  he  availed  himself  of  all  that  the  favorable 
moment  afforded;  and,  equally  at  home  in  the  cabinet 
and  the  field,  he  tore  asunder  the  web  of  the  artful 
policy  with  as  much  ease  as  he  shattered  walls  with  the 
thunder  of  his  cannon.  Uninterruptedly  he  pursued  his 
conquests  from  one  end  of  Germany  to  the  other  without 
breaking  the  line  of  ]iosts  which  commanded  a  secure 
retreat  at  any  moment ;  and  whether  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine,  or  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lech,  alike  maintaining  bis 
communication  with  his  hereditary  dominions. 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  179 

The  consterniition  of  the  Emperor  and  the  League  at 
Tilly's  defeat  at  Leipzig  was  scarcely  greater  than  the 
surprise  and  embarrassment  of  the  allies  of  the  King  of 
Sweden  at  his  unexpected  success.  It  was  beyond  both 
their  expectations  and  their  Avishes.  Annihilated  in  a 
moment  was  that  formidable  army  which,  while  it 
checked  his  progress  and  set  bounds  to  his  ambition,  ren- 
dered him  in  some  measure  dependent  on  themselves. 
He  now  stood  in  the  heart  of  Germany  alone  without  a 
rival  or  without  an  adversary  who  was  a  match  for  him. 
Nothing  could  stop  his  progress  or  check  his  pretensions 
if  the  intoxication  of  success  should  tempt  him  to  abuse 
his  victory.  If  formerly  they  had  dreaded  the  Em- 
peror's irresistible  power,  there  was  no  less  cause  now  to 
fear  everything  for  the  Empire  from  the  violence  of  a 
foreign  conqueror,  and  for  the  Catholic  Church,  from  the 
religrous  zeal  of  a  Protestant  king.  The  distrust  and 
jealousy  of  some  of  the  combined  powers,  which  a 
stronger  fear  of  the  Emperor  had  for  a  time  repressed, 
now  revived ;  and  scarcely  had  Gustavus  Adolphus 
merited  by  his  courage  and  success  their  confidence, 
when  they  began  covertly  to  circumvent  all  his  plans. 
Through  a  continual  struggle  with  the  arts  of  enemies, 
and  the  distrust  of  his  own  allies,  must  his  victories 
henceforth  be  won  ;  yet  resolution,  penetration,  and  pru- 
dence made  their  way  through  all  impediments.  But 
while  his  success  excited  the  jealousy  of  his  more  power- 
ful allies,  France  and  Saxony,  it  gave  courage  to  the 
weaker,  and  emboldened  them  openly  to  declare  their 
sentiments  and  join  his  party.  Those  who  could  neither 
vie  with  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  importance,  nor  suffer 
from  his  ambition,  expected  the  more  from  the  magna- 
nimity of  their  powerful  ally,  Avho  enriched  them  with 
the  spoils  of  their  enemies  and  protected  them  against 
the  oppression  of  their  stronger  neighbors.  His  strength 
covered  their  weakness,  and,  inconsiderable  in  them- 
selves, they  acquired  weight  and  influence  from  their 
union  with  the  Swedish  hero.  This  was  the  case  with 
most  of  the  free  cities,  and  particularly  with  the  weaker 
Protestant  states.  It  was  these  that  introduced  the  king 
into  the  heart  of  Germany ;  these  covered  his  rear,  sup- 


180  THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR. 

plied  his  troops  with  necessaries,  received  tliem  into  their 
fortresses,  while  they  exposed  tlieir  own  lives  in  his  bat- 
tles. His  prudent  regard  to  their  national  jiride,  his 
popular  deportment,  some  brilliant  acts  of  justice,  and 
his  respect  for  the  laws  were  so  many  ties  by  which  he 
bound  the  German  Protestants  to  his  cause;  while  the 
crying  atrocities  of  the  Imperialists,  the  Spaniards,  and 
tlie  troops  of  Lorraine  powerfully  contributed  to  set  his 
own  conduct  and  that  of  liis  army  in  a  favorable  light. 

If  Gustavus  Adolphus  owed  his  success  chiefly  to  his 
own  genius,  at  the  same  time,  it  must  be  owned,  he  was 
greatly  favored  by  fortune  and  by  circumstances.  Two 
great  advantages  gave  him  a  decided  superiority  over 
the  enemy.  While  he  removed  the  scene  of  war  into  the 
lands  of  tlie  League,  drew  their  youth  as  recruits,  enriched 
himself  with  booty,  and  used  the  revenues  of  their  fugi- 
tive })rinces  as  his  own,  he  at  once  took  from  the  enemy 
the  means  of  effectual  resistance,  and  maintained  an 
expensive  war  Avith  little  cost  to  himself.  And,  more- 
over, while  his  opponents,  the  princes  of  the  League, 
divided  among  themselves,  and  governed  by  different 
and  often  conflicting  interests,  acted  without  unanimity, 
and  therefore  without  energy ;  wliile  their  generals  were 
deficient  in  authority,  their  troops  in  obedience,  the  oper:i- 
tions  of  their  scattered  armies  without  concert;  while 
the  general  was  separated  from  the  lawgiver  and  the 
statesman  ;  these  several  functions  were  united  in  Gusta- 
vus Adolphus,  the  only  source  from  which  authority 
flowed,  the  sole  object  to  which  tlie  eye  of  the  "warrior 
turned;  the  soul  of  liis  party,  tlie  inventor  as  well  as  the 
executor  of  his  plans.  In  him,  therefore,  the  Protestants 
had  a  centre  of  unity  and  harmony,  which  was  altogether 
wanting  to  their  opponents.  No  wonder,  then,  if,  favored 
by  such  advantages,  at  the  head  of  such  an  army,  with 
such  a  genius  to  direct  it,  and  guided  by  such  political 
prudence,  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  irresistible. 

With  a  sword  in  one  hand  and  mercy  in  the  other,  he 
traversed  Germany  as  a  conqueror,  a  lawgiver,  and  a 
judge  in  as  short  a  time  almost  as  the  tourist  of  pleasure. 
The  keys  of  toAvns  and  fortresses  were  delivered  to  him 
as  if  to  the  native  sovereign.     No  fortress  was  inacces* 


THE    TIIIETY    years'    WAR.  181 

sible ;  no  river  clicckcd  liis  viotorions  career.  He  con- 
quered by  the  very  terror  of  Lis  name.  The  Swedish 
standards  were  phiiited  along  the  whole  stream  of  the 
Maine;  the  Lower  I'alatinate  was  free,  the  troops  of 
Spain  and  Lorraine  had  Hed  across  the  Khine  and  tlie 
Moselle.  The  Swedes  and  Hessians  poured  like  a  torrent 
into  the  territories  of  Mentz,  of  Wurtzburg,  and  Bam- 
berg, and  three  fugitive  bishops,  at  a  distance  from  their 
sees,  suffered  dearly  for  their  unfortunate  attachment  to 
the  Emperor.  It  was  now  the  turn  for  Maximilian,  the 
leader  of  the  League,  to  feel  in  his  own  dominions  the 
miseries  he  had  inflicted  upon  others.  Neither  the  ter- 
rible fate  of  his  allies,  nor  the  peaceful  overtures  of  Gus- 
tavus,  who,  in  the  midst  of  con(]uest,  ever  held  out  the 
liand  of  friendship,  could  conquer  the  obstinacy  of  this 
prince.  The  torrent  of  war  now  poured  into  Bavaria. 
Like  the  banks  of  the  Ilhine,  those  of  the  Lecke  and  the 
Donau  were  crowded  with  Swedish  troops.  Creeping 
into  his  fortresses,  the  defeated  Elector  abandoned  to 
the  ravages  of  the  foe  liis  dominions,  hitherto  unscathed 
by  war,  and  on  which  the  bigoted  violence  of  the  Bavarians 
seemed  to  invite  retaliation.  Munich  itself  opened  its 
gates  to  the  invincible  monarch,  and  the  fugitive  Palatine, 
Frederick  V.,  in  the  forsaken  residence  of  his  rival,  con- 
soled liimself  for  a  time  for  the  loss  of  his  dominions. 

While  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  extending  his  conquests 
in  the  south,  his  generals  and  allies  were  gaining  similar 
triumphs  in  the  other  provinces.  Lower  Saxony  shook  off 
the  yoke  of  Austria,  the  enemy  abandoned  Mecklenburg, 
and  the  imperial  garrisons  retired  from  the  banks  of  the 
Weser  and  the  Elbe.  Li  Westphalia  and  the  Upper 
Rhine  William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  rendered  himself 
formidable;  tlie  Duke  of  Weimar  in  Thuringia,  and  the 
French  in  the  Electorate  of  Treves ;  while  to  the  eastward 
the  whole  kingdom  of  Bohemia  was  conquered  by  the 
Saxons.  The  Turks  were  preparing  to  attack  Hungary, 
and  in  the  heart  of  Austria  a  dangerous  insurrection  was 
threatened.  In  vain  did  the  Emperor  look  around  to  the 
courts  of  Europe  for  support ;  in  vain  did  he  summon  the 
Spaniai-ds  to  his  rssistance,  for  the  bravery  of  the  Flem- 
ings afforded  then,  ample  employment  beyond  the  Rhine  ; 


182  THE   THIRTY   YEARS '   WAR. 

in  vain  did  he  call  upon  the  Roman  court  and  the  whole 
cliurch  to  come  to  his  rescue.  The  offended  Pope  sported, 
in  pompous  processions  and  idle  anathemas,  with  the  em- 
barrassments of  Ferdinand,  and  instead  of  the  desired 
subsidy  he  was  shown  the  devastation  of  Mantua. 

On  all  sides  of  his  extensive  monarchy  hostile  arms 
surrounded  him.  With  the  states  of  the  League,  now 
overrun  by  the  enemy,  those  ramparts  were  thrown  down 
behind  which  Austria  had  so  long  defended  herself,  and 
the  embers  of  war  were  now  smouldering  upon  her 
unguarded  frontiers.  His  most  zealous  allies  were  dis- 
armed ;  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  his  firmest  support,  was 
scarce  able  to  defend  himself.  His  armies,  weakened  by 
desertion  and  repeated  defeat,  and  dispirited  by  continued 
misfortunes,  had  unlearnt,  under  beaten  generals,  that 
warlike  impetuosity  which  as  it  is  the  consequence,  so  it 
is  the  guarantee  of  success.  The  danger  was  extreme, 
and  extraordinary  means  alone  could  raise  the  imperial 
power  from  the  degradation  into  which  it  was  fallen. 

The  most  urgent  want  was  that  of  a  general ;  and  the 
only  one  from  whom  he  could  hope  for  the  revival  of  his 
former  splendor  had  been  removed  from  his  command 
by  an  envious  cabal.  So  low  had  the  Emperor  now  fallen 
that  he  was  forced  to  make  the  most  humiliating  propo- 
sals to  his  injured  subject  and  servant,  and  meanly  to 
])ress  upon  the  imperious  Duke  of  Friedland  the  accept- 
ance of  the  powers  which  no  less  meanly  had  been  taken 
from  him.  A  new  spirit  began  from  this  moment  to 
animate  the  expiring  body  of  Austria;  and  a  sudden 
cliange  in  the  aspect  of  affairs  bespoke  the  firm  hand 
which  guided  them.  To  the  absolute  King  of  Sweden 
a  general  equally  absolute  was  now  opposed ;  and  one 
victorious  hero  was  confronted  with  another.  Both 
armies  were  again  to  engage  in  the  doubtful  struggle; 
and  the  prize  of  victory,  already  almost  secured  in  the 
hands  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  was  to  be  the  object  of 
another  and  a  severer  trial.  The  storm  of  Avar  gathered 
around  Nuremberg;  before  its  walls  the  hostile  armies 
encamped  ;  gazing  on  each  other  with  dread  and  respect, 
longing  for,  and  yet  shrinking  from,  the  moment  that 
was  to  close  them  together  in  the  shock  of  battle.     The 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  183 

eyes  of  Europe  turned  to  the  scene  in  curiosity  and 
alarm,  while  Nuremberg,  in  dismay,  expected  soon  to 
lend  its  name  to  a  more  decisive  battle  than  that  of  Leip- 
zig. Suddenly  the  clouds  broke  and  the  storm  rolled 
away  from  Franconia,  to  burst  upon  the  plains  of  Saxony. 
Near  Lutzen  fell  the  thunder  that  had  menaced  Nurem- 
berg; the  victory,  half  lost,  was  purchased  by  the  death 
of  the  king.  Fortune,  which  had  never  deserted  him  in 
his  lifetime,  favored  the  King  of  Sweden  even  in  his 
death,  with  the  rare  privilege  of  falling  in  the  fulness  of 
his  glory  and  an  untarnished  fame.  By  a  timely  death 
his  protecting  genius  rescued  him  from  the  inevitable 
fate  of  man  —  that  of  forgetting  moderation  in  the  intox- 
ication of  success,  and  justice  in  the  plenitude  of  power. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether,  had  he  lived  longer,  he  would 
still  have  deserved  the  tears  which  Germany  shed  over 
his  gx-ave,  or  maintained  his  title  to  the  admiration  with 
which  posterity  regards  him,  as  the  first  and  only  just 
conqueror  that  the  world  has  produced.  The  iintimely 
fall  of  their  great  leader  seemed  to  threaten  the  ruin  of 
his  party ;  but  to  the  Power  which  rules  the  world,  no 
loss  of  a  single  man  is  irreparable.  As  the  helm  of  war 
dropped  from  the  hand  of  the  falling  hero,  it  was  seized 
by  two  great  statesmen,  Oxenstiern  and  Richelieu.  Des- 
tiny still  pursued  its  relentless  course,  and  for  full  sixteen 
years  longer  the  flames  of  war  blazed  over  the  ashes  of 
the  long-forgotten  king  and  soldier, 

I  may  now  be  permitted  to  take  a  cursory  retrospect 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  his  victorious  career,  glance  at 
the  scene  in  which  he  alone  was  the  great  actor,  and 
then,  when  Austria  becomes  reduced  to  extremity  by 
the  successes  of  the  Swedes,  and  by  a  series  of  disasters 
is  driven  to  the  most  humiliating  and  desperate  expedi- 
ents, to  return  to  the  history  of  the  Emperor. 

As  soon  as  the  plan  of  operations  had  been  concerted 
at  Halle  between  the  King  of  Sweden  and  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  as  soon  as  the  alliance  had  been  concluded 
with  the  neighboring  princes  of  Weimar  and  Anhalt,  and 
preparations  made  for  the  recovery  of  the  bishopric  of 
Magdeburg,  the  king  began  his  march  into  the  empire. 
He  had  here  no  despicable  foe  to  contend  with.     Within 


184  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

the  empire  the  Emperor  was  still  powerful ;  throughout 
Franconia,  Swabia,  and  tlie  Palatinate  imperial  garrisons 
were  posted  witli  whom  the  possession  of  every  place  of 
importance  must  be  disputed  sword  in  hand.     On  the 
Rhine  he  was  opposed  by  the  Spaniards,  who  had  over- 
run the  territory  of  the  banished  Elector  Palatine,  seized 
all  its  strong  places,  and  would  everywhere  dispute  with 
him  the  passage  over  that  river.     On  his  rear  was  Tilly, 
who  was  fast" recruiting  his   force,  and  would   soon  be 
joined  by  the  auxiliaries  from  Lorraine.     Every  Papist 
presented  an  inveterate  foe,  while  his  connection  with 
France  did  not  leave  him  at  liberty  to  act  with  freedom 
against  the  Roman  Catholics.      Gustavus   had   foreseen 
ail  these  obstacles,  but  at  the  same  time  the  means  by 
which  they  were  to  be  overcome.     The  strengtli  of  the 
Imperialists  was   broken    and   divided   among   different 
garrisons,  while  he  would  bring  against  them  one  by  one 
his  whole  united  force.     If  he  was  to  be  opposed  by  the 
fanaticism  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  the  awe  in  which 
the  lesser  states  regarded  the  Emperor's  power,  he  might 
depend    on  the   active  support  of  the  Protestants  and 
their  hatred  to  Austrian  oppression.     The  ravages  of  the 
Imperialist   and    Spanish   troops   also   powerfully  aided 
him  in  these  quarters ;  Avhere  the  ill-treated  husbandman 
and  citizen  sighed  alike  for  a  deliverer,  and  where  the 
mere  change  of  yoke  seemed  to  promise  a  relief.     Emissa- 
ries were  despatched  to  gain  over  to  the  Swedish  side 
the   principal   free   cities,    particularly   Nuremburg  and 
Frankfort.     The  first  that  lay  in  the  king's  march,  and 
which  he  could  not  leave  unoccupied   in  his  rear,  was 
Erfurt.     Here  the  Protestant  party  among  the  citizens 
opened  to  him,  without  a  blow,  the  gates  of  the  town 
and   the  citadel.     From  the    inhabitants  of  this,   as   of 
every  important  ])lace  which  afterwards  submitted,  he 
exacted  an  oath  of  allegiance,  while  he  secured  its  pos- 
session by  a  sufficient  garrison.     To  his  ally,  Duke  Wil- 
liam of  Weimar,  he  entrusted  the  command  of  an  army 
to  be   raised  in  Thuringia.     lie   also  left  his  queen  in 
Erfurt,  and   promised    to   increase  its  privileges.      The 
Swedish  army  now  crossed  the  Thuringian  forest  in  two 
columns,  by  Gotha  and  Arnstadt,  and,  having  delivered 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  185 

in  its  march  the  county  of  Hcnneberg  from  the  Imperial- 
ists, fornied  a  junction  on  the  tliird  day  near  Koenigs- 
hofen,  on  the  frontiers  of  Franconia. 

Francis,  Bishop  of  Wurtzburg,  the  bitter  enemy  of 
the  Protestants,  and  tlie  most  zealous  member  of  the 
Leaijue,  was  the  first  to  feel  the  indication  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  A  few  threats  gained  for  the  Swedes  posses- 
sion of  his  fortress  of  Koenigshofen,  and  with  it  the  key 
of  the  whole  province.  At  the  news  of  this  rapid  con- 
quest dismay  seized  all  the  Roman  Catholic  towns  of  the 
circle.  The  Bishops  of  Wurtzburg  and  Bamberg  trembled 
in  their  castles ;  they  already  saw  their  sees  tottering, 
their  churches  profaned,  and  their  religion  degraded. 
The  malice  of  his  enemies  had  circulated  the  most  fright- 
ful representations  of  the  persecuting  spirit  and  the 
mode  of  warfare  pursued  by  the  Swedish  king  and  his 
soldiers,  which  neither  the  repeated  assurances  of  the 
king  nor  the  most  splendid  exam]>les  of  humanity  and 
toleration  ever  entirely  effaced.  Many  feared  to  suffer  at 
the  hands  of  another  what  in  similar  circumstances  they 
were  conscious  of  inflicting  themselves.  Many  of  the 
richest  Roman  Catholics  hastened  to  secure  by  flight 
their  property,  their  religion,  and  their  persons  from  the 
sanguinaiy  fanaticism  of  the  Swedes.  The  bishop  him- 
self set  the  example.  In  the  midst  of  the  alarm  which 
his  bigoted  zeal  had  caused  he  abandoned  his  dominions 
and  fled  to  Paris  to  excite,  if  possible,  the  French  minis- 
try against  the  common  enemy  of  religion. 

The  further  progress  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  the 
ecclesiastical  territories  asrreed  with  this  brilliant  com- 
mencenient.  Schweinfurt,  and  soon  after  Wurtzburg, 
abandoned  by  their  Imperial  garrisons,  surrendered;  but 
Marienberg  he  was  obliged  to  cany  by  storm.  In  this 
place,  which  was  believed  to  be  impregnable,  the  enemy 
had  collected  a  large  store  of  provisions  and  ammunition, 
all  of  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  The  king 
found  a  valuable  prize  in  the  library  of  the  Jesuits, 
which  he  sent  to  Upsal,  while  his  soldiers  found  a  still 
more  agreeable  one  in  the  prelate's  well-filled  cellars ; 
his  treasures  the  bishop  had  in  good  time  removed. 
The  whole  bishopric  followed  the  example  of  the  capital 


186  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

and  submitted  to  the  Swedes.  The  king  compelled  all 
the  bishop's  subjects  to  swear  allegiance  to  himself,  and 
in  the  absence  of  the  lawful  sovereign  appointed  a  re- 
gency, one-half  of  whose  members  were  Protestants.  In 
every  Roman  Catholic  town  which  Gustavus  took  he 
opened  the  churches  to  the  Protestant  people,  but  with- 
out retaliating  on  the  Papists  the  cruelties  which  they 
had  practised  on  the  former.  On  such  only  as  sword  in 
hand  refused  to  submit  were  the  fearful  rights  of  war 
enforced ;  and  for  the  occasional  acts  of  violence  com- 
mitted by  a  few  of  the  more  lawless  soldiers,  in  the  blind 
rage  of  their  first  attack,  their  humane  leader  is  not  justly 
responsible.  Those  who  were  peaceably  disposed,  or 
defenceless,  were  treated  with  mildness.  It  was  a  sacred 
principle  with  Gustavus  to  spare  the  blood  of  his  enemies 
as  well  as  that  of  his  own  troops. 

On  the  first  news  of  the  Swedish  irruption  the  Bishop 
of  Wurtzburg,  without  regarding  the  treaty  which  he 
had  entered  into  with  the  King  of  Sweden,  had  earnestly 
pressed  the  general  of  the  League  to  hasten  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  bishojmc.  That  defected  commander  had, 
in  the  meantime,  collected  on  the  Weser  the  shattered 
remnant  of  his  army,.reinforced  himself  from  the  garri- 
sons of  Lower  Saxony,  and  effected  a  junction  in  Hesse 
with  Altringer  and  Fugger,  who  commanded  under  him. 
Again  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  force  Tilly  burned 
with  impatience  to  wipe  out  the  stain  of  his  first  defeat 
by  a  splendid  victory.  From  his  camp  at  Fulda,  whither 
he  had  marched  with  his  army,  he  earnestly  requested 
permission  from  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  to  give  battle 
to  Gustavus  Adolphus.  But,  in  tlie  event  of  Tilly's 
defeat,  the  League  had  no  second  army  to  fall  back 
upon,  and  Maximilian  was  too  cautious  to  risk  again  the 
fate  of  his  party  on  a  single  battle.  With  tears  in  his 
eyes  Tilly  read  the  commands  of  his  superior  which  com- 
pelled him  to  inactivity.  Tims  his  march  to  Franconia 
was  delayed,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  gained  time  to  over- 
run the  whole  bislioprir.  It  Avas  in  vain  that  Tilly,  rein- 
forced at  Aschaffenburg  by  a  body  of  twelve  thousand 
men  from  Lorraine,  marclied  with  an  overwhelming  force 
to  the  relief  of  Wurtzburg.     The  town  and  citadel  were 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  187 

already  in  the  hands  of  the  Swedes,  and  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria  was  generally  blamed  (and  not  without  cause, 
perhaps)  for  having  by  his  scruples  occasioned  the  loss  of 
the  bishopric.  Commanded  to  avoid  a  battle,  Tilly  con- 
tented himself  with  checking  the  farther  advance  of  the 
enemy ;  but  he  could  save  only  a  few  of  the  towns  from 
the  impetuosity  of  the  Swedes.  Baffled  in  an  attempt  to 
reinforce  the  weak  garrison  of  Hanau,  which  it  was 
highly  important  for  the  Swedes  to  gain,  he  crossed  the 
Maine  near  Seligenstadt  and  took  the  direction  of  the 
Bergestrasse,  to  protect  the  Palatinate  from  the  con- 
queror. 

Tilly,  however,  was  not  the  sole  enemy  whom  Gustayus 
Adolphus   met    in    Franconia     and    drove   before   him. 
Charles,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  celebrated  in  the  annals  of 
the  time  for  his  unsteadiness  of  character,  his  vain  pro- 
jects, and  his  misfortunes,  ventured  to  raise  a  weak  arm 
against  the  Swedish  hero  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  from 
the  Emperor  the  electoral  dignity.     Deaf  to  the  sugges- 
tions of  a  rational  policy,  he  listened  only  to  the  dictates 
of  heated  ambition;  by  supporting  the  Emperor  he  ex- 
asperated France,  his  formidable  neighbor,  and  in  pursuit 
of  a  visionary  phantom  in    another   country  left  unde- 
fended his  own  dominions,  which  were  instantly  overrun 
by  a  French  army.     Austria  willingly  conceded  to  him, 
as  well  as  to  the  other  princes  of  the  League,  the  honor 
of  being  ruined  in  her  cause.     Litoxicated  with  vain  hopes 
this  prince  collected  a  force  of  seventeen  thousand  men 
which  he  proposed  to  lead  in  person  against  the  Swedes.    If 
these  troops  were  deficient  in  discipline  and  courage  they 
were  at  least  attractive  by  the  splendor  of  their  accoutre- 
ments ;  and  however  sparing  they  were  of  their  prowess 
against  the  foe,  they  were  liberal  enough  with  it  against 
the  defenceless  citizens  and  peasantry  whom  they  were 
summoned   to   defend.      Against   the    bravery   and  the 
formidable   discipline   of    the    Swedes    this    splendidly 
attired   army,   however,  made   no  long  stand.     On  the 
first  advance  of  the  Swedish  cavalry  a  panic  seized  them, 
and  they  were  driven  without  difficulty  from  their  can- 
tonments in  Wurtzburg ;  the  defeat  of  a  few  regiments 
occasioned   a  general  "rout,  and  the  scattered  remnant 


188  TIIE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 


sought  a  covert  from  the  Swedish  valor  in  the  towns 
beyond  the  Rhine.  Loaded  with  shame  and  ridicule  the 
duke  hurried  home  by  Strasburg,  too  fortunate  in 
escaping,  by  a  submissive  written  apology,  the  indigna- 
tion of  his  conqueror,  who  had  first  beaten  him  out  of 
the  field,  and  then  called  upon  him  to  account  for  his 
hostilities.  It  is  related  upon  this  occasion  that  in  a  vil- 
lage on  the  Rhine  a  peasant  struck  the  horse  of  the  duke 
as  he  rode  past,  exclaiming,  "  Haste,  sir ;  you  must  go 
quicker  to  escape  the  great  King  of  Sweden." 

The  example  of  his  neighbors'  misfortunes  had  taught 
the  Bishop  of  Bamberg  prudence.  To  avert  the  plunder- 
ing of  his  territories  he  made  offers  of  peace,  though 
these  were  intended  only  to  delay  the  king's  course  till 
the  arrival  of  assistance.  Gustavus  Adolphus,  too  hon- 
orable himself  to  suspect  dislionesty  in  another,  readily 
accepted  the  bishop's  proposals  and  named  the  conditions 
on  which  he  was  willing  to  save  his  territories  from  hos- 
tile treatment.  He  was  the  more  inclined  to  peace,  as  he 
had  no  time  to  lose  in  the  conquest  of  Bamberg,  and  his 
other  designs  called  him  to  the  Rhine.  The  rapidity 
with  which  he  followed  up  these  plans  cost  him  the  loss 
of  those  pecuniary  supplies  which,  by  a  longer  residence 
in  Franconia,  he  might  easily  have  extorted  from  the 
weak  and  terrified  bishop.  This  artful  pi-elate  broke  off 
the  negotiation  the  instant  the  storm  of  war  passed  away 
from  his  own  territories.  No  sooner  had  Gustavus 
marched  onwards  than  he  threw  himself  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Tilly,  and  received  tlie  troops  of  the  Emperor 
into  the  very  towns  and  fortresses  which  shortly  before 
he  had  shown  himself  ready  to  open  to  the  Swedes.  By 
this  stratagem,  however,  he  only  delayed  for  a  brief 
interval  the  ruin  of  his  bishopric.  A  Swedish  general 
who  had  been  left  in  Franconia  undertook  to  punish  the 
perfidy  of  the  bishop,  and  the  ecclesiastical  territory 
became  the  seat  of  war  and  was  ravaged  alike  by  friends 
and  foes. 

The  formidable  presence  of  the  Imperialists  had  hith- 
erto been  a  clieck  upon  the  Franconian  States  ;  but  their 
retreat,  and  tlie  humane  conduct  of  the  Swedish  king, 
emboldened  the  nobility  and  other  inhabitants  of  ihis 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  189 

circle  to  declare  in  his  favor.  ISTuremberg  joyfully  com- 
mitted itself  to  his  protection,  and  the  Fi-anconian  nobles 
were  won  to  his  cause  by  flattering  proclamations  in 
which  he  condescended  to  apologize  for  his  hostile  ap- 
pearance in  their  dominions.  The  fertility  of  Franconia, 
and  the  rigorous  honesty  of  the  Swedish  soldiers  in  their 
dealings  with  the  inhabitants,  brought  abundance  to  the 
camp  of  the  king.  The  high  esteem  which  the  nobility 
of  the  circle  felt  for  Gustavus,  the  respect  and  admira- 
tion with  which  they  regarded  his  brilliant  exploits,  the 
promises  of  rich  booty  "which  the  service  of  this  mon- 
arch held  out,  greatly  facilitated  the  recruiting  of  his 
troops ;  a  step  which  Vas  made  necessary  by  detaching 
so  many  garrisons  from  the  main  body.  At  the  sound 
of  his  drums  recruits  flocked  to  his  standard  from  all 
quarters. 

The  king  had  scarcely  spent  more  time  in  conquering 
Franconia  than  he  would  have  required  to  cross  it.  He 
now  left  behind  him  Gustavus  Horn,  one  of  his  best 
generals,  with  a  force  of  eight  thousand  men,  to  complete 
and  retain  his  conquest.  He  himself  with  his  main  army, 
reinforced  by  the  late  recruits,  hastened  towards  the 
Rhine  in  order  to  secure  this  frontier  of  the  empire  from 
the  Spaniards,  to  disarm  the  ecclesiastical  electors,  and 
to  obtain  from  their  fertile  territories  new  resources  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Following  the  course  of  the 
Maine,  he  subjected  in  the  course  of  his  march  Seligen- 
stadt,  Aschaffenburg,  Steinheim,  the  whole  territory  on 
both  sides  of  the  river.  The  imperial  garrisons  seldom 
awaited  his  approach,  and  never  attempted  resistance. 
In  the  meanwhile  one  of  his  colonels  had  been  fortunate 
enough  to  take  by  suprise  the  town  and  citadel  of  Hanau, 
for  whose  preservation  Tilly  had  shown  such  anxiety. 
Eao;er  to  be  free  of  tlie  oppressive  burden  of  the  Impe- 
riailsts,  the  Count  of  Hanau  gladly  placed  himself  under 
the  milder  yoke  of  the  King  of  Sweden. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  now  turned  his  whole  attention  to 
Frankfort,  for  it  was  his  constant  maxim  to  cover  his 
rear  by  the  friendship  and  possession  of  the  more  impor- 
tant towns.  Frankfort  was  among  tlie  free  cities  Avhich, 
even  from  Saxony,  he  had  endeavored  to  prepare  for  his 


190  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

reception ;  and  he  now  called  upon  it,  by  a  summons 
from  Offenbach,  to  allow  him  a  free  passage,  and  to 
admit  a  Swedish  garrison.  Willingly  would  this  city 
have  dispensed  with  the  necessity  of  choosing  between 
the  King  of  Sweden  and  the  Emperor,  for,  whatever 
party  they  might  embrace,  the  inhabitants  liad  a  like  rea- 
son to  fear  for  their  privileges  and  trade.  The  Emperor's 
vengeance  would  certainly  fall  heavily  upon  them  if  they 
were  in  a  hurry  to  submit  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  and 
afterwards  he  should  prove  unable  to  protect  his  adher- 
ents in  Germany.  But  still  more  ruinous  for  them  would 
be  the  displeasure  of  an  irresistible  conqueror  Avho,  with 
a  formidable  army,  was  already  before  their  gates,  and 
who  might  punish  their  opposition  by  the  ruin  of  their 
commerce  and  prosperity.  In  vain  did  their  deputies 
plead  the  danger  which  menaced  their  fairs,  their  privi- 
leges, perhaps  their  constitution  itself,  if  by  espousing 
the  party  of  the  Swedes  they  were  to  incur  the  Emperor's 
displeasure.  Gustavus  Adolphus  expressed  to  them  his 
astonishment  that  when  the  liberties  of  Germany  and  the 
Protestant  religion  were  at  stake  the  citizens  of  Frank- 
fort should  talk  of  their  annual  fairs,  and  postpone  for 
temporal  interests  the  great  cause  of  their  country  and 
their  conscience.  He  had,  he  continued  in  a  menacing 
tone,  found  the  keys  of  every  town  and  fortress  from  the 
Isle  of  Rugen  to  the  Maine,  and  knew  also  where  to  find 
a  key  to  Frankfort.  The  safety  of  Germany  and  the 
freedom  of  the  Protestant  Church  were,  he  assured  them, 
the  sole  objects  of  his  invasion;  conscious  of  the  justice 
of  his  cause,  he  was  determined  not  to  allow  any  obstacle 
to  impede  his  progress.  "  The  inhabitants  of  Frankfort, 
he  was  well  aware,  wished  to  stretch  out  only  a  finger  to 
him,  but  he  must  have  the  whole  hand  in  order  to  have 
something  to  grasp."  At  the  head  of  the  army  he  closely 
followed  the  deputies  as  they  carried  back  his  answer, 
and  in  order  of  battle  awaited  near  Saxenhausen  the 
decision  of  the  council. 

If  Frankfort  hesitated  to  submit  to  the  Swedes  it  was 
solely  from  fear  of  the  Emperor ;  their  own  inclinations 
did  not  allow  tliem  a  moment  to  doubt  between  the 
ojijircssor  of  Germany  and  its  protector.     The  menacing 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAII.  191 

preparations  amidst  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  now  com- 
pelled them  to  decide  would  lessen  the  guilt  of  their 
revolt  in  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor,  and  by  an  appearance 
of  compulsion  justify  the  step  which  they  willingly  took. 
The  gates  were  therefore  opened  to  the  King  of  Sweden, 
who  marched  his  army  through  this  imperial  town  in 
magnificent  procession  and  in  admirable  order.  A  gar- 
rison of  six  hundred  men  was  left  in  Saxenhausen,  while 
the  king  himself  advanced  the  same  evening  with  the 
rest  of  his  army  against  the  town  of  Hochst,  in  Mentz, 
which  surrendered  to  him  before  night. 

While  Gustavus  was  thus  extending  his  conquests  along 
the  Maine,  fortune  crowned  also  the  efforts  of  his  gen- 
erals and  allies  in  the  North  of  Germany.  Rostock, 
Wismar,  and  Doemitz,  the  only  strong  places  in  the 
Duchy  of  Mecklenburg  which  still  sighed  under  the  yoke 
of  the  Imperialists,  were  recovered  by  their  legitimate 
sovereign,  the  Duke  John  Albert,  under  the  Swedish 
General  Achatius  Tott.  In  vain  did  the  Imperial  general. 
Wolf  Count  von  Mansfeld,  endeavor  to  recover  from  the 
Swedes  the  territories  of  Halberstadt,  of  which  they  had 
taken  possession  immediately  upon  the  victory  of  Leip- 
zig ;  he  Avas  even  compelled  to  leave  Magdeburg  itself  in 
their  hands.  The  Swedish  general.  Banner,  who  with 
eight  thousand  men  remained  upon  the  Elbe,  closely 
blockaded  that  city,  and  had  defeated  several  imperial 
regiments  which  had  been  sent  to  its  relief.  Count 
Mansfeld  defended  it  in  person  with  great  resolution,  but 
his  garrison  being  too  weak  to  oppose  for  any  length  of 
time  the  numerous  force  of  the  besiegers,  he  was  already 
about  to  surrender  on  conditions  when  Pappenheim  ad- 
vanced to  his  assistance  and  gave  employment  elsewhere 
to  the  Swedish  arms.  Magdeburg,  however,  or  rather 
the  wretched  huts  that  peeped  out  miserably  from  among 
the  ruins  of  that  once  great  town,  was  afterwards  volun- 
tarily abandoned  by  tlie  Imperialists  and  immediately 
taken  possession  of  by  the  Swedes. 

Even  Lower  Saxony,  encouraged  by  the  progress  of 
the  king,  ventured  to  raise  its  head  from  the  disasters  of 
the  unfortunate  Danish  war.  They  held  a  congress  at 
Hamburg   and    resolved  upon   raising   three    regiments, 


192  THE    THIRTY   YEAIIS'   WAR. 

which  they  hoped  would  be  sufficient  to  free  them 
from  the  oppressive  garrisons  of  the  Imperialists,  The 
Bishop  of  Bremen,  a  relation  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  was 
not  content  even  with  this,  but  assembled  ti'oops  of  his 
own,  and  terrified  the  unfortunate  monks  and  priests  of 
the  neighborhood,  but  was  quickly  compelled  by  the 
imperial  general,  Count  Gronsfeld,  to  lay  down  his  arms. 
Even  George,  Duke  of  Lunenburg,  formerly  a  colonel  in 
tlie  Emperor's  service,  embraced  the  party  of  Gustavus, 
for  whom  he  raised  several  regiments,  and,  by  occupying 
the  attention  of  the  Imperialists  in  Lower  Saxony, 
materially  assisted  him. 

But  more  impoi'tant  service  was  rendered  to  the  king 
by  the  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse  Cassel,  whose  vic- 
torious arms  struck  with  terror  the  greater  part  of 
Westphalia  and  Lower  Saxony,  the  bishopric  of  P'ulda, 
and  even  the  Electorate  of  Cologne.  It  has  been  already- 
stated  that  immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  the  alli- 
ance between  the  Landgrave  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  at 
Werben,  two  imperial  generals,  Fugger  and  Altringer, 
were  ordered  by  Tilly  to  march  into  Hesse,  to  punish  the 
Landgrave  for  his  revolt  from  the  Emperor.  But  this 
prince  had  as  firmly  withstood  the  arms  of  his  enemies 
as  his  subjects  had  the  proclamations  of  Tilly  inciting 
them  to  rebellion,  and  the  battle  of  Leipzig  presently 
relieved  him  of  their  presence.  He  availed  himself  of 
their  absence  Avith  courage  and  resolution ;  in  a  sliort 
time,  Vacli,  Miinden,  and  Hoexter  surrendered  to  him, 
while  his  rapid  advance  alarmed  the  bishoprics  of  Fulda, 
Paderborn,  and  the  ecclesiastical  territories  wl)ich  bor- 
dered on  Hesse.  The  terrified  states  hastened  by  a 
speedy  submission  to  set  limits  to  his  progress,  and  by 
considerable  contributions  to  purchase  exemption  from 
plunder.  After  these  successful  enterprises,  the  Land- 
grave united  his  victorious  army  with  that  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  and  concerted  with  him  at  Frankfort  their 
future  ])lan  of  operations. 

In  this  city  a  number  of  princes  and  ambassadors  were 
assembled  to  congratulate  Gustavus  on  his  success,  and 
either  to  conciliate  his  favor  or  to  appease  his  indignation. 
Among  them  was  the  fugitive  King  of  Bohemia,  Palatine 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  193 

Frederick  V.,  wlio  had  hastened  from  Holland  to  throAv 
himself  into  the  arms  of  his  avenger  and  protector.  Gus- 
tavus  gave  him  the  unprofitable  honor  of  greeting  him  as 
a  crowned  head,  and  endeavored  by  a  respectful  sympathy 
to  soften  his  sense  of  his  misfortunes.  But  great  as  the 
advantages  were  which  Frederick  had  promised  himself 
from  the  power  and  good  fortune  of  his  protector,  and 
high  as  were  the  expectations  he  had  built  on  his  justice 
and  magnanimity,  tlie  chance  of  this  unfortunate  prince's 
reinstatement  in  his  kingdom  was  as  distant  as  ever.  The 
inactivity  and  contradictory  politics  of  the  English  court 
had  abated  the  zeal  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  an  irrita- 
bility, which  he  could  not  always  repress,  made  him  on 
this  occasion  forget  the  glorious  vocation  of  protector  of 
the  oppressed,  in  which  on  his  invasion  of  Germany  he 
had  so  loudly  announced  himself. 

The  terrors  of  the  king's  irresistible  strength,  and  the 
near  prospect  of  his  vengeance,  had  also  compelled 
George,  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Darmstadt,  to  a  timely 
submission.  His  connection  with  the  Emperor,  and  his 
indifference  to  the  Protestant  cause,  were  no  secret  to  the 
king,  but  he  was  satisfied  with  laughing  at  so  impotent 
an  enemy.  As  the  Landgrave  knew  his  own  strength  and 
the  political  situation  of  Germany  so  little,  as  to  offer 
himself  as  mediator  between  the  contending  parties,  Gus- 
tavus used  jestingly  to  call  him  the  peacemaker.  He  was 
frequently  heard  to  say,  when  at  play  he  was  winning 
from  the  Landgrave,  "that  the  money  afforded  double 
satisfaction,  as  it  was  Imperial  coin."  To  his  affinity  witli 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Avhom  Gustavus  liad  cause  to  treat 
with  forbearance,  the  Landgrave  was  indebted  for  the 
favorable  terms  he  obtained  from  the  king,  who  contented 
himself  with  the  surrender  of  his  fortress  of  Russelheim, 
and  his  promise  of  observing  a  strict  neutrality  during 
the  Avar.  The  Counts  of  Westerwald  and  Wetterau  also 
visited  the  King  in  Frankfort,  to  offer  him  their  assistance 
against  the  Spaniards,  and  so  conclude  an  alliance,  wliich 
was  afterwards  of  great  service  to  him.  The  town  of 
Frankfort  itself  had  reason  to  rejoice  at  the  presence  of  this 
monarch,  who  took  their  commerce  under  his  protection, 
and  by  the  most  effectual  measures  restored  the  fairs,  which 
had  been  greatly  interrupted  by  the  war. 


194  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

The  Swedish  army  was  now  reinforced  by  ten  thousand 
Hessians,  which  the  Landgrave  of  Casse  commanded. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  ah-eady  invested  Konigstein; 
Kostheira  and  Florsheim  surrendered  after  a  short  siege ; 
he  was  in  command  of  the  Maine ;  and  transports  were 
preparing  with  all  speed  at  Hoechst  to  carry  his  troops 
across  the  Rhine.  These  preparations  filled  the  Elector 
of  Mentz,  Anselm  Casiinir,  with  consternation  ;  and  he  no 
longer  doubted  but  that  the  storm  of  war  would  next  fall 
upon  him.  As  a  partisan  of  the  Emperor,  and  one  of  the 
most  active  members  of  the  League,  he  could  expect  no 
better  treatment  than  his  confederates,  the  Bishops  of 
Wurtzburg  and  Bamberg,  had  already  experienced.  The 
situation  of  his  territories  upon  the  Rhine  made  it  neces- 
sary for  the  enemy  to  secure  them,  while  the  fertility 
afforded  an  irresistible  temptation  to  a  necessitous  army. 
Miscalculating  his  own  strenorth  and  that  of  his  adversa- 
ries,  the  Elector  flattered  himself  that  he  was  able  to 
repel  force  by  force,  and  weary  out  the  valor  of  the 
Swedes  by  the  strength  of  his  fortresses.  He  ordered 
the  fortifications  of  his  capital  to  be  repaired  with  all 
diligence,  provided  it  with  every  necessary  for  sustaining 
a  long  siege,  and  received  into  the  town  a  garrison  of 
two  thousand  Spaniards,  under  Don  Philip  de  Sylva. 
To  prevent  the  approach  of  the  Swedish  transports,  he 
endeavored  to  close  the  mouth  of  the  Maine  by  driving 
piles,  and  sinking  large  heaps  of  stones  and  vessels.  He 
himself,  however,  accompanied  by  the  Bishop  of  Worms, 
and  carrying  with  him  his  most  precious  effects,  took 
refuge  in  Cologne,  and  abandoned  his  capital  and  terri- 
tories to  the  rapacity  of  a  tyrannical  garrison.  But  these 
preparations,  which  bespoke  less  of  true  courage  than  of 
weak  and  overweening  confidence,  did  not  prevent  the 
Swedes  from  marching  against  Mentz,  and  making  serious 
preparations  for  an  attack  upon  the  city.  While  one 
body  of  their  troops  poured  into  the  Rheingau,  routed  the 
Spaniards  who  remained  there,  and  levied  contributions 
on  the  inhabitants,  another  laid  the  Roman  Catholic 
towns  in  Westerwald  and  Wetterau  under  similar  con- 
tributions. The  main  army  had  encamped  at  Cassel, 
opposite  Mentz;  and  Bernhard,  Duke  of  Weimar,  made 


THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR.  195 

himself  master  of  the  Mausethurm  and  the  castle  of 
Elnenfels,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine.  Gustavus  was 
now  actively  preparing  to  cross  the  river,  and  to  blockade 
the  town  on  the  land  side,  when  the  movements  of  Tilly 
in  Franconia  suddenly  called  him  from  the  siege,  and 
obtained  for  the  Elector  a  short  repose. 

The  danger  of  Nuremburg,  which,  during  the  absence 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  on  the  Rhine,  Tilly  had  made  a 
show  of  besieging,  and,  in  the  event  of  resistance,  threat- 
ened with  the  cruel  fate  of  Magdeburg,  occasioned  the 
king  suddenly  to  retire  from  before  Mentz.  Lest  he 
should  expose  himself  a  second  time  to  the  reproaches  of 
Germany,  and  the  disgrace  of  abandoning  a  confederate 
city  to  a  ferocious  enemy,  he  hastened  to  its  relief  by 
forced  marches.  On  his  arrival  at  Frankfort,  however, 
he  heard  of  its  spirited  resistance,  and  of  the  retreat  of 
Tilly,  and  lost  not  a  moment  in  prosecuting  his  designs 
against  Mentz.  Failing  in  an  attempt  to  cross  the  Rhine 
at  Cassel,  under  the  cannon  of  the  besieged,  he  directed 
his  march  towards  the  Bergsti-asse,  with  a  view  of  ap- 
proaching the  toAvn  from  an  opposite  quarter.  Here  he 
quickly  made  himself  master  of  all  the  places  of  impor- 
tance, and  at  Stockstadt,  between  Gernsheim  and  Oppen- 
heim,  appeared  a  second  time  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine.  The  whole  of  the  Bergstrasse  was  abandoned  by 
the  Spaniards,  who  endeavored  obstinately  to  defend  the 
other  bank  of  the  river.  For  this  purpose  they  had  burned 
or  sunk  all  the  vessels  in  the  neighborhood,  and  arranged 
a  formidable  force  on  the  banks  in  case  the  king  should 
attempt  the  passage  at  that  place. 

On  this  occasion,  the  king's  impetuosity  exposed  him 
to  great  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
In  order  to  reconnoitre  the  opposite  bank,  he  crossed  the 
river  in  a  small  boat;  he  had  scarcely  landed  when  he 
was  attacked  by  a  party  of  Spanish  horse,  from  whose 
hands  he  only  saved  himself  by  a  precipitate  retreat. 
Having  at  last,  with  the  assistance  of  the  neighboring 
fishermen,  succeeded  in  procuring  a  few  transports,  he 
despatched  two  of  them  across  the  river,  bearing  Count 
Brahe  and  three  hundred  Swedes.  Scarcely  had  this 
officer  time  to  entrench  himself  on  the  opposite  bank, 


196  THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR. 

when  he  was  attacked  by  fourteen  squadrons  of  Spanish 
dragoons  and  cuirassiers.  Superior  as  the  enemy  was  in 
number,  Count  Brahe,  with  his  small  force,  bravely  de- 
fended himself,  and  gained  time  for  the  king  to  sui)port 
him  with  fresh  troops.  The  Spaniards  at  last  retired  Avith 
the  loss  of  six  hundred  men,  some  taking  refuge  in 
Oppenheim,  and  others  in  Mentz.  A  lion  of  marble  on  a 
high  pillar,  holding  a  naked  sword  in  his  paw,  and  a  hel- 
met on  his  head,  was  erected  seventy  years  after  the 
event,  to  point  out  to  the  traveller  the  spot  where  the 
immortal  monarch  crossed  the  great  river  of  Germany. 

Gustavus  Adolplius  now  conveyed  his  artillery  and  the 
greater  i)art  of  his  troops  over  the  river,  and  laid  siege  to 
Ojjpenheim,  which,  after  a  brave  resistance,  was,  on  the 
8th  December,  1631,  carried  by  storm.  Five  hundred 
Spaniards,  who  had  so  courageously  defended  the  place, 
fell  indiscriminately  a  sacrifice  to  the  fury  of  the  Swedes. 
The  crossing  of  the  Rhine  by  Gustavus  struck  terror  into 
the  Spaniards  and  Lorrainers,  M'ho  had  thought  them- 
selves protected  by  the  river  from  the  vengeance  of  the 
Swedes.  Rapid  flight  was  now  their  only  security  ;  every 
place  incapable  of  an  effectual  defence  was  immediately 
abandoned.  After  a  long  train  of  outrages  on  the  de- 
fenceless citizens,  the  troops  of  Lorraine  evacuated 
Worms,  which,  before  their  departure,  they  treated  wuth 
wanton  cruelty.  The  Spaniards  hastened  to  shut  them- 
selves up  in  Frankenthal,  where  they  hoped  to  defy  the 
victorious  arms  of  Gustavus  Adolplius. 

The  king  lost  no  time  in  prosecuting  his  designs  against 
Mentz,  into  wdiich  the  flower  of  tlie  Spanish  troops  had 
thrown  themselves.  While  he  advanced  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Cassel  moved 
forward  on  the  other,  reducing  several  strong  places  on 
his  march.  The  besieged  Spaniards,  thougli  hemmed  in 
on  both  sides,  displayed  at  first  a  bold  determination, 
and  threw,  for  several  days,  a  shower  of  bombs  into  the 
Swedish  camp,  which  cost  the  king  many  of  his  bravest 
soldiers.  But,  notwithstanding,  the  Swedes  continually 
gained  ground,  and  had  at  last  advanced  so  close  to  the 
ditch  that  they  prepared  seriously  for  storming  the  place. 
The  courage  of  the  besieged  now  began  to  droop.     I'liey 


THE    THIKTY   YEARS'   WAR.  197 

trembled  before  the  furious  impetuosity  of  the  Swedish 
soldiers,  of  which  Marienberg,  in  Wurtzburg,  had  affortled 
so  fearful  an  example.  The  same  dreadful  fate  awaited 
Meiitz  if  taken  by  storm  ;  and  the  enemy  might  even  be 
easily  tempted  to  revenge  the  carnage  of  Magdeburg  on 
this  rich  and  magnificent  residence  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
prince.  To  save  the  town,  rather  than  their  own  lives, 
the  Spanish  garrison  capitulated  on  the  fourth  day,  and 
obtained  from  the  magnanimity  of  Gustavus  a  safe  con- 
duct to  Luxembourg  ;  the  greater  part  of  them,  however, 
following  the  example  of  many  others,  enlisted  in  the 
service  of  Sweden. 

On  the  13th  December,  1631,  the  king  made  his  entry 
into  the  conquered  town,  and  fixed  his  quarters  in  the 
palace  of  the  Elector.  Eighty  pieces  of  cannon  fell  into 
his  hands,  and  the  citizens  were  obliged  to  redeem  their 
property  from  pillage  by  a  payment  of  eighty  thousand 
florins.  The  benefits  of  this  redemption  did  not  extend 
to  the  Jews  and  the  clergy,  who  were  obliged  to  make 
large  and  separate  contributions  for  themselves.  Tlie 
library  of  the  Elector  was  seized  by  the  king  as  his  share, 
and  presented  by  him  to  his  chancellor,  Oxenstiern,  who 
intended  it  for  the  Academy  of  Westerrah,  but  the 
vessel  in  which  it  vras  shipped  to  Sweden  foundered  at 
sea. 

After  the  loss  of  Mentz  misfortune  still  pursued  the 
Spaniards  on  the  Rhine.  Shortly  before  the  capture  of 
that  city,  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Cassel  had  taken 
Falkenstein  and  Reifenberg,  and  the  fortress  of  Koning- 
stein  surrendered  to  the  "Hessians.  The  Rhinegraye, 
Otto  Louis,  one  of  the  king's  generals,  defeated  nine 
Spanish  squadrons  who  were  on  their  march  for  Franken- 
thal,  and  made  himself  master  of  the  most  important 
towns  upon  the  Rhine,  fi'om  Boppart  to  Bacharach. 
After  the  capture  of  the  fortress  of  Braunfels,  which  ^yas 
effected  by  the  Count  of  Wetterau,  with  the  co-operation 
of  the  Swedes,  the  Spaniards  quickly  lost  every  place  in 
Wetterau,  while  in  the  Palatinate  they  retained  few 
places  besides  Frankenthal.  Landau  and  Kronweisenberg 
openly  declared  for  the  Swedes  ;  Spires  offered  ti-«»ops  for 
the  king's   service ;  Manheim   Avas  gained   through   the 


198  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

prudence  of  tlie  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  and  the 
negligence  of  its  governor,  who,  for  this  misconduct,  was 
tried  before  tlie  council  of  war,  at  Heidelberg,  and 
beheaded. 

The  king  had  protracted  the  campaign  into  the  depth 
of  winter,  and  the  severity  of  the  season  was  perhaps  one 
cause  of  the  advantaije  his  soldiers  gained  over  those  of 
the  enemy.  But  the  exhausted  troops  now  stood  m  need 
of  the  rej^ose  of  winter  quarters,  which,  after  the  surrender 
of  Mentz,  Gustavus  assigned  to  them,  in  its  neighborhood. 
He  himself  employed  the  interval  of  inactivity  in  the 
field,  which  the  season  of  the  year  enjoined,  in  arranging, 
with  his  chancellor,  the  affairs  of  his  cabinet,  in  treating 
for  a  neutrality  with  some  of  his  enemies,  and  adjusting 
some  political  disputes  which  had  sprung  up  with  a  neigh- 
boring ally.  He  chose  the.  city  of  Mentz  for  his  winter 
quarters,  and  the  settlement  of  these  state  affairs,  and 
showed  a  greater  partiality  for  this  town  than  seemed 
consistent  with  the  interests  of  tlie  German  princes,  or 
the  shortness  of  his  visit  to  the  Empire.  Not  content 
with  strongly  fortifying  it,  he  erected  at  the  oj^posite 
angle,  which  the  Maine  forms  with  the  Rhine,  a  new 
citadal,  which  was  named  Gustavusburg  from  its  founder, 
but  which  is  better  known  under  the  title  of  Pfaffenraub 
or  Pfaffenzwang.* 

While  Gustavus  Adolphus  made  himself  master  of  the 
Rhine,  and  threatened  the  three  neighboring  electorates 
with  his  victorious  arms,  his  vigilant  enemies  in  Paris 
and  St.  Germain's  made  use  of  every  artifice  to  deprive 
him  of  the  support  of  France,  and,  if  possible,  to  involve 
him  in  a  Avar  with  that  power.  By  his  sudden  and 
equivocal  march  to  the  Rhine  he  had  sur])rised  his 
friends,  and  furnished  his  enemies  with  the  means  of  ex- 
citing a  distrust  of  his  intentions.  After  the  conquest  of 
Wnrtzburg,  and  of  the  greater  part  of  Franconia,  the 
road  into  Bavaria  and  Austria  lay  open  to  him  through 
Bamberg  and  the  Upper  Palatinate  ;  and  the  expectation 
was  as  general  as  it  was  natural,  that  he  would  not  delay 
to  attack  the  Emperor  and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  in  the 

*  Priests'  plunder ;  alluding  to  the  means  ty  wliicli  the  expense  of  its 
erection  had  been  defrayed. 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  199 

very  centre  of  their  po^ver,  and,  by  the  reduction  of  his 
two  principal  enemies,  bring  the  war  immediately  to  an 
end.  But  to  the  surprise  of  both  parties,  Gustavus  left 
the  path  which  general  expectation  had  tlius  marked  out 
for  him ;  and  instead  of  advancing  to  the  right,  turned  to 
the  left,  to  make  the  less  important  and  more  innocent 
princes  of  tlie  Rhine  feel  his  power,  while  he  gave  time 
to  his  more  formidable  opponents  to  recruit  their  strength. 
Notliing  but  the  paramount  design  of  reinstating  the  un- 
fortunate Palatine,  Frederick  V.,  in  the  possession  of  liis 
territories,  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards,  could  seem 
to  account  for  this  strange  step ;  and  the  belief  that  Gus- 
tavus was  about  to  effect  that  restoration  silenced  for  a 
while  the  suspicions  of  his  friends  and  the  calumnies  of 
his  enemies.  But  the  Lower  Palatinate  was  now  almost 
entirely  cleared  of  the  enemy;  and  yet  Gustavus  con- 
tinued to  form  new  schemes  of  conquest  on  the  Rhine, 
and  to  withhold  the  reconquered  country  from  the  Pala- 
tine, its  rightful  owner.  In  vain  did  the  English  ambas- 
sador remind  him  of  what  justice  demanded,  and  what 
his  own  solemn  engagement  made  a  duty  of  honor;  Gus- 
tavus replied  to  these  demands  with  bitter  complaints 
of  the  inactivity  of  the  English  court,  and  prepared  to 
carry  his  victorious  standard  into  Alsace,  and  even  into 
Lorraine. 

A  distrust  of  the  Swedish  monarch  was  now  loud  and 
open,  while  the  malice  of  his  enemies  busily  circulated  the 
most  injurious  reports  as  to  his  intentions.  Richelieu, 
the  minister  of  Louis  XIIL,  had  long  witnessed  Avith 
anxiety  the  king's  progress  towards  the  French  frontier, 
and  the  suspicious  temper  of  Louis  rendered  him  but  too 
accessible  to  the  evil  surmises  which  the  occasion  gave  rise 
to.  France  was  at  this  time  involved  in  a  civil  war  with 
her  Protestant  subjects,  and  the  fear  was  not  altogether 
groundless  that  the  approach  of  a  victorious  monarch  of 
their  party  might  revive  their  drooping  spirit,  and  en- 
courage them  to  a  more  desperate  resistance.  This  might 
be  the  case,  even  if  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  far  from 
showing  a  disposition  to  encourage  them,  or  to  act  un- 
faithfuilv  towards  his  ally,  the  King  of  France.  But  the 
vindictive  Bishop  of  Wurtzburg,  who  was    anxious  to 


200  THE    THIRTr    YEARS'    WAR. 

aveno^e  the  loss  of  his  dominions,  the  envenomed  rhetoric 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  active  zeal  of  the  Bavarian  minister, 
represented  this  dreaded  alliance  between  the  Huguenots 
and  the  Swedes  as  an  undoubted  fact,  and  filled  the  timid 
mind  of  Louis  with  the  most  alarming  fears.  Not  merely 
chimerical  politicians,  but  many  of  the  best  informed 
Roman  Catholics,  fully  believed  that  the  king  was  on  the 
point  of  breaking  into  the  heart  of  France,  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  the  Huguenots,  and  to  overturn  the 
Catholic  religion  within  the  kingdom.  Fanatical  zealots 
already  saw  him,  with  his  army,  crossing  the  Alps  and 
dethroning  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ  in  Italy.  Such 
reports  no  doubt  soon  refute  themselves  ;  yet  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  Gustavus,  by  his  manoeuvres  on  the  Rhine, 
gave  a  dangerous  handle  to  the  malice  of  his  enemies,  and 
in  some  measure  justified  the  suspicion  that  he  directed 
his  arms,  not  so  much  against  the  Emperor  and  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  as  against  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
itself. 

The  general  clamor  of  discontent  which  the  Jesuits 
raised  in  all  the  Catholic  courts  against  the  alliance  be- 
tween France  and  the  enemy  of  the  church  at  last  com- 
pelled Cardinal  Richelieu  to  take  a  decisive  step  for  the 
security  of  his  religion,  and  at  once  to  convince  the 
Roman  Catholic  world  of  the  zeal  of  France,  and  of  the 
selfish  policy  of  the  ecclesiastical  states  of  Germany. 
Convinced  that  the  views  of  the  Khig  of  Sweden,  like  his 
own,  aimed  solely  at  the  humiliation  of  the  power  of' 
Austria,  he  hesitated  not  to  promise  to  the  princes  of  the 
League,  on  the  part  of  Sweden,  a  complete  neutrality, 
immediately  they  abandoned  their  alliance  with  the  Em- 
peror and  withdrew  their  troops.  Whatever  the  resolu- 
tion these  princes  should  adopt  Richelieu  would  equally 
attain  his  object.  By  their  separation  from  the  Austrian 
interest  Ferdinand  would  be  exposed  to  the  combined 
attack  of  France  and  Sweden ;  and  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
freed  from  his  other  enemies  in  Germany,  would  be  able 
to  direct  his  undivided  force  against  the  hereditary  do- 
minions of  Austria.  In  that  event  the  fall  of  Austria 
was  inevitable,  and  this  great  object  of  Richelieu's  policy 
would  be  gained  without  injury  to  the  church.     If,  on 


THE    THIllTY    YEARS'    WAR.  201 

the  other  hand,  the  princes  of  the  League  persisted  in 
their  opposition,  and  adhered  to  the  Austrian  alliance,  the 
result  would  indeed  be  more  doubtful,  but  still  France 
would  have  sufficiently  proved  to  all  Europe  the  sincerity 
of  her  attachment  to  the  Catholic  cause,  and  performed 
her  duty  as  a  member  of  the  Roman  Church.  The 
princes  of  the  League  would  then  appear  the  sole  au- 
thors of  those  evils  which  the  continuance  of  the  war 
would  unavoidably  bring  upon  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
Germany  ;  they  alone,  by  their  wilful  and  obstinate  ad- 
herence to  the  Emperor,  would  frustrate  the  measures 
employed  for  their  protection,  involve  the  church  in 
danger,  and  themselves  in  ruin. 

Richelieu  pursued  this  plan  with  greater  zeal,  the  more 
he  was  embarrassed  by  the  repeated  demands  of  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria  for  assistance  from  France  ;~  for  this 
prince,  as  already  stated,  when  he  first  began  to  enter- 
tain suspicions  of  the  Emperor,  entered  immediately  into 
a  secret  alliance  with  France,  by  which,  in  the  event  of 
any  change  in  the  Emperor's  sentiments,  he  hoped  to 
secure  the  possession  of  the  Palatinate.  But  though  the 
origin  of  the  treaty  clearly  showed  against  what  enemy 
it  was  directed,  Maximilian  now  thought  proper  to  make 
use  of  it  against  the  King  of  Sweden,  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  demand  from  France  that  assistance  against  her 
ally  which  she  had  sim])ly  promised  against  Austria. 
Richelieu,  embarrassed  by  this  conflicting  alliance  with 
two  hostile  powers,  had  no  resource  left  but  to  endeavor 
to  put  a  speedy  termination  to  their  hostilities  ;  and  as 
little  inclined  to  sacrifice  Bavaria,  as  he  was  disabled,  by 
his  treaty  with  Sweden,  from  assisting  it,  he  set  himself, 
with  all  diligence,  to  bring  about  a  neutrality  as  the  only 
means  of  fulfilling  his  obligations  to  both.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  Marquis  of  Breze  Avas  sent,  as  his  plenipoten- 
tiary, to  the  King  of  Sweden  at  Mentz,  to  learn  his  senti- 
ments on  this  point,  and  to  procure  from  him  favorable 
conditions  for  the  allied  ])rinces.  But  if  Louis  XIII.  had 
powerful  motives  for  wishing  for  this  neutrality,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  had  as  grave  reasons  for  desiring  the  contrary. 
Convinced  by  numerous  ])roofs  that  the  hatred  of  the 
princes  of  the  League  to  the  Protestant  religion  was  in- 


202  THE    THIRTY    YEAIIS'    AVAR. 

vincible,  their  aversion  to  the  foreign  power  of  the 
Swedes  inextinguishable,  and  their  attachment  to  the 
House  of  Austria  irrevocable,  he  apprehended  less  danger 
from  their  open  hostility  than  from  a  neutrality  which 
was  so  little  in  unison  with  their  real  inclinations;  and, 
moreover,  as  he  was  constrained  to  carry  on  the  war  in 
Germany  at  the  expense  of  the  enemy,  he  manifestly  sus- 
tained great  loss  if  he  diminished  their  number  without 
increasing  that  of  his  friends.  It  was  not  surprising, 
therefore,  if  Gustavus  evinced  little  inclination  to  pur- 
chase the  neutrality  of  the  League,  by  which  he  was 
likely  to  gain  so  little,  at  the  expense  of  the  advantages 
he  had  already  obtained. 

The  conditions,  accordingly,  upon  which  he  offered  to 
adopt  the  neutrality  towards  Bavaria  were  severe,  and 
suited  to  these  views.  He  required  of  the  whole  League 
a  full  and  entire  cessation  from  all  hostilities ;  the  recall 
of  their  troops  from  the  imperial  army,  from  the  con- 
quered towns,  and  from  all  the  Protestant  countries  ;  the 
reduction  of  their  military  force;  the  exclusion  of  the 
imperial  armies  from  their  teri-itories,  and  from  supplies 
either  of  men,  provisions,  or  ammunition.  Hard  as  the 
conditions  were  which  the  victor  thus  imposed  upon  the 
vanquished  the  French  mediator  flattered  himself  he 
should  be  able  to  induce  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  to  accept 
them.  In  order  to  give  time  for  an  accommodation,  Gus- 
tavus had  agreed  to  a  cessation  of  hostilities  for  a  fort- 
night.  But  at  the  very  time  when  this  monarch  was 
receiving  from  the  French  agents  repeated  assurances  of 
the  favorable  progress  of  the  negotiation,  an  intercepted 
letter  from  the  Elector  to  Pappenheim,  the  imperial  gen- 
eral in  Westphalia,  revealed  the  perhdy  of  that  prince,  as 
having  no  other  object  in  view  by  the  whole  negotiation 
than  to  gain  time  for  his  measures  of  defence.  P'ar 
from  intending  to  fetter  his  military  operations  by  a 
truce  with  Sweden,  the  artful  prince  hastened  his  prep- 
arations, and  employed  the  leisure  which  his  enemy 
afforded  him,  in  making  the  most  active  dispositions  for 
resistance.  The  negotiation  accordingly  failed,  and 
served  only  to  increase  the  animosity  of  the  Bavarians 
and  the  Swedes. 


THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    AVAR.  203 

Tilly's  augmented  force,  with  which  he  threatened  to 
overrun  Franconia,  urgently  required  the  king's  presence 
in  that  circle ;  but  it  was  necessary  to  expel  previously 
the  Spaniards  from  the  Rhine,  and  to  cut  off  their  means 
of  invading  Germany  from  the  Netherlands.  With  this 
view,  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  made  an  offer  of  neutrality 
to  the  Elector  of  Treves,  Philip  von  Zeltern,  on  condi- 
tion that  the  fortress  of  Hermanstein  should  be  delivered 
up  to  him,  and  a  free  passage  granted  to  his  troops 
through  Coblentz.  But  unwillingly  as  the  Elector  had 
beheld  the  Spaniards  within  his  territories,  he  was  still 
less  disposed  to  commit  his  estates  to  the  suspicious  pro- 
tection of  a  heretic,  and  to  make  the  Swedish  conqueror 
master  of  his  destinies.  Too  weak  to  maintain  his  inde- 
pendence between  two  such  powerful  competitors,  he  took 
refuge  in  the  protection  of  France.  With  his  usual  pru- 
dence, Richelieu  profited  by  the  embarrassments  of  this 
prince  to  augment  the  power  of  France,  and  to  gain  for 
her  an  important  ally  on  the  German  frontier.  A  numer- 
ous French  army  was  despatched  to  j^rotect  the  territory 
of  Treves,  and  a  Frencli  garrison  was  received  into 
Ehrenbreitstein.  But  the  object  which  had  moved  the 
Elector  to  this  bold  step  was  not  completely  gained,  for 
the  offended  pride  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  not  ap- 
peased till  he  had  obtained  a  free  passage  for  his  troops 
through  Treves. 

Pendinor  these  nesrotiations  with  Treves  and  France, 
the  king's  generals  had  entirely  cleared  the  territory  of 
Mentz  of  the  Spanish  garrisons,  and  Gustavus  himself 
completed  the  conquest  of  this  district  by  the  capture  of 
Kreutznach.  To  protect  these  conquests  the  Chancellor 
Oxenstiern  was  left  with  a  division  of  the  army  upon  the 
Middle  Rhine,  while  the  main  body,  under  the  king  him- 
self, began  its  march  against  the  enemy  in  Franconia. 

The  possession  of  this  circle  had,  in  the  meantime,  been 
disputed  with  variable  success,  between  Count  Tilly  and  the 
Swedish  General  Horn,  whom  Gustavus  had  left  there  with 
eight  thousand  men  ;  and  the  Bishopric  of  Bamberg,  in 
particular,  was  at  once  the  prize  and  the  scene  of  their 
struggle.  Called  away  to  the  Rhine  by  his  other  projects, 
the  kinc:  had  left  to  his  "-eneral  the  chastisement  of  the 


204  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

bishop,  whose  perfidy  had  excited  his  indignation,  and 
the  activity  of  Horn  justified  the  choice.  In  a  short  time 
he  subdued  the  greater  part  of  the  bishopric ;  and  the 
capital  itself,  abandoned  by  its  imperial  garrison,  was 
carried  by  storm.  The  banished  bishop  urgently  de- 
manded assistance  from  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  wlio  Avas 
at  length  persuaded  to  put  an  end  to  Tilly's  inactivity. 
Fully  empowered  by  his  master's  order  to  restore  the 
bishop  to  his  possessions,  this  general  collected  his  troops, 
who  were  scattered  over  the  Upper  Palatinate,  and  with 
an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men  advanced  upon  Bam- 
berg. Firmly  resolved  to  maintain  his  conquest,  even 
against  this  overwhelming  force,  Horn  awaited  the  enemy 
within  the  walls  of  Bamberg  ;  but  was  obliged  to  yield  to 
the  vanguard  of  Tilly  what  he  had  thought  to  be  able  to 
dispute  with  his  whole  array.  A  panic  wliich  suddenly 
seized  his  troops,  and  which  no  presence  of  mind  of  their 
general  could  check,  opened  the  gates  to  the  enemy,  and 
it  Avas  with  difficulty  that  the  troops,  baggage,  and  artil- 
lery were  saved.  The  reconquest  of  Bamberg  was  the 
fruit  of  this  victory ;  but  Tilly,  with  all  his  activity,  was 
unable  to  overtake  the  Swedish  general,  who  retired  in 
good  order  behind  the  Maine.  The  king's  appearance  in 
Franconia,  and  his  junction  with  Gustavus  Horn  at 
Kitzingen,  put  a  stop  to  Tilly's  conquests,  and  com- 
pelled "him  to  provide  for  his  own  safety  by  a  rapid  re- 
treat. 

The  king  made  a  general  review  of  his  troops  at  Asch- 
affenburg.  After  his  junction  with  Gustavus  Horn, 
Banner,  and  Duke  William  of  Weimar,  they  amounted 
to  nearly  forty  thousand  men.  His  progress  througli 
Franconia  was  uninterrupted  ;  for  Tilly,  far  too  weak  to 
encounter  an  enemy  so  superior  in  numbers,  had  retreated, 
by  rapid  marches,  towards  the  Danube.  Bohemia  and 
Bavaria  were  now  equally  near  to  the  king,  and,  uncer- 
tain whither  liis  victorious  course  might  be  directed, 
Maximilian  could  form  no  immediate  resolution.  The 
choice  of  the  king,  and  the  fate  of  both  provinces,  now 
depended  on  the'road  that  should  be  left  open  to  Count 
Tilly.  It  was  dangerous,  during  the  apju-oach  of  so  for- 
midable an  enemy,  to  leave  Bavaria  undefended,  in  order 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS*    WAR.  205 

to  protect  Austria ;  still  more  dangerous,  by  receiving 
Tilly  into  Bavaria,  to  dravv  thither  tlie  enemy  also,  and 
to  render  it  the  seat  of  a  destructive  Mar,  The  cares  of 
the  sovereign  finally  overcame  the  scruples  of  the  states- 
man, and  Tilly  received  ordei-s,  at  all  hazards,  to  cover 
the  frontiers  of  Bavaria  with  his  army. 

l^uremberg  received  with  triumphant  joy  the  pro- 
tector of  the  Protestant  religion  and  German  freedom, 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  citizens  expressed  itself  on  his 
arrival  in  loud  transports  of  admiration  and  joy.  Even 
Gastavus  could  not  contain  his  astonishment  to  see  him- 
self in  this  city,  which  Avas  the  very  centre  of  Germany, 
where  he  had  never  exjjected  to  be  able  to  penetrate. 
The  noble  appearance  of  his  person  completed  the  im- 
pression produced  by  his  glorious  exploits,  and  the  con- 
descension Avith  which  he  received  the  congratulations  of 
this  free  city  won  all  hearts.  He  now  confirmed  the 
alliance  he  had  concluded  with  it  on  the  shores  of  the 
Baltic,  and  excited  the  citizens  to  zealous  activity  and 
fraternal  unity  against  the  common  enemy.  After  a 
short  stay  in  Nuremberg  he  followed  his  army  to  the 
Danube,  and  appeared  unexpectedly  before  the  frontier 
town  of  Donauwerth.  A  numerous  Bavarian  garrison 
defended  the  place,  and  their  commander,  Rodolph  Maxi- 
milian, Duke  of  Saxe  Lauenburg,  showed  at  first  a  resolute 
determination  to  defend  it  till  the  arrival  of  Tilly.  But 
the  vigor  with  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  prosecuted  the 
siege  soon  compelled  him  to  take  measures  for  a  speedy 
and  secure  retreat,  which,  amidst  a  tremendous  fire  from 
the  Swedish  artillery,  he  successfully  executed. 

The  conquest  of  Donauwerth  opened  to  the  king  the 
further  side  of  the  Danube,  and  now  the  small  river 
Lech  alone  separated  him  from  Bavaria.  The  immediate 
danger  of  his  dominions  aroused  all  Maximilian's  activity, 
and  however  little  he  had  hitherto  disturbed  the  enemy's 
progress  to  his  frontier,  he  now  determined  to  dispute  as 
resolutely  the  remainder  of  their  course.  On  tlie  oppo- 
site bank  of  the  Lech,  near  the  small  town  of  Rain,  Tilly 
occupied  a  strongly  fortified  camp,  which,  surrounded  by 
three  rivers,  bade  defiance  to  all  attack.  All  the  bridges. 
over  the  Lech  were  destroyed ;  the  whole  course  of  the 


206  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

stream  protected  by  strong  garrisons  as  far  as  Augsburg, 
and  that  town  itself,  which  had  long  betrayed  its  impa- 
tience to  follow  the  example  of  Nuremberg  and  Frank- 
fort, secured  by  a  Bavarian  garrison,  and  the  disarming 
of  its  inhabitants.  The  Elector  himself,  with  all  the 
troops  he  could  collect,  threw  himself  into  Tilly's  camp, 
as  if  all  his  hopes  centred  on  this  single  point,  and  here 
the  good  fortune  of  the  Swedes  was  to  suffer  shipwreck 
forevei*. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  after  subduing  the  whole  territory 
of  Augsburg,  on  his  own  side  of  the  river,  and  opening 
to  his  troops  a  rich  supply  of  necessaries  from  that  quar- 
ter, soon  appeared  on  the  bank  opposite  the  Bavarian 
intrenchnients.  It  was  now  the  month  of  March,  when 
tlie  river,  swollen  by  frequent  rains  and  the  melting  of 
the  snow  from  the  mountains  of  the  Tyrol,  flowed  full 
and  rapid  between  its  steep  banks.  Its  boiling  current 
threatened  the  rash  assailants  with  certain  destruction, 
while  from  the  opposite  side  the  enemy's  cannon  showed 
their  murder.ous  mouths.  If,  in  despite  of  the  fury  both 
of  fire  and  water,  they  should  accomplish  this  almost 
impossible  passage,  a  fresh  and  vigorous  enemy  awaited 
the  exhausted  troops  in  an  impregnable  camp ;  and  when 
they  needed  repose  and  refreshment  they  must  prepare 
for  battle.  With  exhausted  powers  they  must  ascend 
the  hostile  intrenchments,  whose  strength  seemed  to  bid 
deliance  to  every  assault.  A  defeat  sustained  upon  this 
shore  would  be  attended  with  inevitable  destruction, 
since  the  same  stream  which  impeded  their  advance 
would  also  cut  off  their  retreat  if  fortune  should  abandon 
them. 

The  Swedish  council  of  war,  which  the  king  now 
assembled,  strongly  urged  upon  him  all  these  considera- 
tions, in  order  to  deter  him  from  this  dangerous  under- 
taking. The  most  intrepid  were  appalled,  and  a  trooji  of 
honorable  warriors,  who  had  grown  gray  in  the  field,  did 
not  hesitate  to  express  their  alarm.  But  the  king's  reso- 
lution was  fixed.  "  What ! "  said  he  to  Gustavus  Horn, 
who  spoke  for  the  rest,  "have  we  crossed  the  Baltic, 
and  so  many  great  rivers  of  Germany,  and  shall  we  now 
be  checked  by  a  brook  like  the  Lech?"     Gustavus  had 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  207 

already  at  great  personal  risk  reconnoitred  the  whole 
country,  and  discovered  that  his  own  side  of  the  river 
was  higher  than  the  other,  and  consequently  gave  a  con- 
siderable advantage  to  the  fire  of  the  Swedish  artillery 
over  that  of  the  enemy.  With  great  presence  of  mind 
he  determined  to  profit  by  this  circumstance.  At  the 
point  where  the  left  bank  of  the  Lech  forms  an  angle 
with  the  right  he  immediately  caused  three  batteries  to 
be  erected,  from  which  seventy-two  field-pieces  main- 
tained a  cross  fire  upon  the  enemy.  While  this  tremen- 
dous cannonade  drove  the  Bavarians  from  the  opposite 
bank,  he  caused  to  be  erected  a  bridge  over  the  river 
with  all  possible  rapidity.  A  thick  smoke,  kept  up  by 
burning  wood  and  wet  straw,  concealed  for  some  time  the 
progress  of  the  work  fi'om  the  enemy,  while  the  contin- 
ued thunder  of  the  cannon  overpowered  the  noise  of  the 
axes.  He  kept  alive  by  his  own  example  the  courage  of 
his  troops,  and  discharged  more  than  sixty  cannon  with 
his  own  hand.  The  cannonade  was  returned  by  the 
Bavarir.ns  with  equal  vivacity  for  two  hours,  though  with 
less  effect,  as  the  Swedish  batteries  swept  the  lower  oppo- 
site bank,  while  their  height  served  as  a  breastwork  to 
their  own  troops.  In  vain,  therefore,  did  the  Bavarians 
attempt  to  destroy  these  works ;  the  superior  fire  of  tlie 
Swedes  threw  them  into  disorder,  and  the  bridge  was  com- 
pleted under  their  very  eyes.  On  this  dreadful  day  Tilly 
did  everything  in  his  power  to  encourage  his  troops,  and 
no  danger  could  drive  him  from  the  bank.  At  length  he 
found  the  death  which  he  sought,  a  cannon-ball  shattered 
his  leg ;  and  Altringer,  his  brave  companion-in-arms,  was 
soon  after  dangerously  wounded  in  the  head.  Deprived 
of  the  animating  presence  of  their  two  generals  the 
Bavarians  gave  way  at  last,  and  Maximilian,  in  spite  of 
his  own  judgment,  was  driven  to  adopt  a  pusillanimous 
resolve.  Overcome  by  the  persuasions  of  the  dying 
Tilly,  whose  wonted  firmness  was  overpowered  by  the 
near  approach  of  death,  he  gave  up  his  impregnable  posi- 
tion for  lost ;  and  the  discovery  by  the  Swedes  of  a  ford 
by  which  their  cavalry  were  on  the  pomt  of  passing, 
accelerated  his  inglorious  retreat.  The  same  night,  be- 
fore a  single  soldier  of  the  enemy  had  crossed  the  Lech, 


208  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

he  broke  up  his  camp,  and  without  giving  time  for  the 
king  to  harass  him  in  liis  march,  retreated  in  good  order 
to  Neuburgh  and  Ingolstadt.  With  astonishment  did 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  completed  tlie  passage  of  the 
river  on  the  following  day,  behold  tlie  hostile  camjD 
abandoned ;  and  the  Elector's  flight  surprised  him  still 
moi-e  when  he  saw  the  strength  of  the  position  he  had 
quitted.  "  Had  I  been  the  Bavarian,"  said  he,  "  though 
a  cannon-ball  had  carried  away  my  beard  and  chin,  never 
would  I  have  abandoned  a  position  like  this  and  laid  open 
my  territory  to  my  enemies." 

Bavaria  now  lay  exposed  to  the  conquerer ;  and,  for 
the  first  time  the  tide  of  war,  which  had  hitherto  only 
beat  against  its  frontier,  now  flowed  over  its  long  spared 
and  fertile  fields.  Before,  however,  the  king  proceeded 
to  the  conquest  of  these  provinces,  he  delivered  the  town 
of  Augsburg  from  the  yoke  of  Bavaria,  exacted  an  oath  of 
allegiance  from  the  citizens,  and  to  secure  its  observance 
left  a  garrison  in  the  town.  He  then  advanced  by  rapid 
marches  against  Ingolstadt,  in  order,  by  the  capture  of 
this  important  fortress,  which  the  Elector  covered  with 
the  greater  part  of  his  army,  to  secure  his  conquests  in 
Bavaria  and  obtain  a  firm  footing  on  the  Danube. 

Shortly  after  the  appearance  of  the  Swedish  King 
before  Ingoldstadt,  the  wounded  Tilly,  after  experiencing 
the  caprice  of  unstable  fortune,  terminated  his  career 
within  the  walls  of  that  town.  Conquered  by  the  supe- 
rior generalship  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  he  lost  at  the 
close  of  his  days  all  the  laurels  of  his  earlier  victories,  and 
appeased  by  a  series  of  misfortunes  the  demands  of  jus- 
tice and  the  avencfinor  manes  of  Ma^jdcburff.  In  his 
death  the  Imperial  army  and  that  of  the  League  sus- 
tained an  irreparable  loss;  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
was  deprived  of  its  most  zealous  defender,  and  Maximil- 
ian of  Bavaria  of  the  most  faithful  of  his  servants,  who 
sealed  his  fidelity  by  his  death,  and  even  in  his  dying 
moments  fulfilled  the  duties  of  a  general.  His  last  mes- 
sage to  the  Elector  was  an  urgent  advice  to  take  possess- 
ion of  Ratisbon,in  order  to  maintain  the  command  of  the 
Danube,  and  to  keep  open  the  communication  with 
Bohemia. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  209 

"With  the  confidence  wliich  was  the  natural  fruit  of  so 
many  victories,  Gustavus  Adolphus  commenced  tl>e  siege 
of  Ingolstadt,  hoping  to  gain  the  town  by  the  fury  of  liis 
first  assault.  But  the  strength  of  its  fortifications  and 
the  bravery  of  its  garrison  presented  obstacles  greater 
than  any  he  had  had  to  encounter  since  the  battle  of 
Breitenfeld,  and  the  walls  of  Ingolstadt  were  near  putting 
an  end  to  his  career.  While  reconnoitring  the  works  a 
twenty-four-pounder  killed  his  horse  under  hira  and  he 
fell  to  the  ground,  while  almost  immediatelv  afterwards 
another  ball  struck  his  favorite,  the  young  Margrave  of 
Baden,  by  his  side.  With  perfect  self-possession  the  king 
rose  and  quieted  the  fears  of  his  troops  by  immediately 
mounting  another  horse. 

The  occupation  of  Ratisbon  by  the  Bavarians,  who,  by 
the  advice  of  Tilly,  had  surprised  this  town  by  stratagem, 
and  placed  in  it  a  strong  garrison,  quickly  changed  the 
king's  plan  of  operations.  He  had  flattered  himself  with 
the  hope  of  gaining  this  town,  which  favored  the  Prot- 
estant cause,  and  to  find  in  it  an  ally  as  devoted  to  him  as 
Nuremberg,  Augsburg,  and  Frankfort.  Its  seizure  by 
the  Bavarians  seemed  to  postpone  for  a  long  time  the 
fulfilment  of  his  favorite  project  of  making  himself  mas- 
ter of  the  Danube,  and  cutting  off  his  adversaries'  sup- 
plies from  Bohemia.  He  suddenly  'raised  the  siege  of 
Ingoldstadt,  before  which  he  had  wasted  both  his  time 
and  his  troops,  and  penetrated  into  the  interior  of  Bavaria, 
in  order  to  draw  the  Elector  into  that  quarter  for  the 
defence  of  his  territories,  and  thus  to  strip  the  Danube 
of  its  defenders. 

The  whole  country  as  far  as  Munich  now  lay  open  to 
the  conqueror.  Mosberg,  Landshut,  and  the  whole  terri- 
tory of  Freysingen  submitted ;  nothing  could  resist  his 
arms.  But  if  he  met  with  no  regular  force  to  oppose  his 
progress  he  had  to  contend  against  a  still  more  implac- 
able enemy  in  the  heart  of  every  Bavarian  —  religious 
fanaticism.  Soldiers  who  did  not  believe  in  the  Pope 
were,  in  this  country,  a  new  and  unheard-of  phenomenon  ; 
the  blind  zeal  of  the  priests  represented  them  to  the 
peasantry  as  monsters,  the  children  of  hell,  and  their 
leader  as  Antichrist.     Ko  wonder,  then,  if  they  thought 


210  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

themselves  released  from  all  the  ties  of  nature  and  human- 
ity towards  this  brood  of  Satan,  and  justified  in  commit- 
ting the  most  savage  atrocities  upon  them.  Woe  to  the 
Swedish  soldier  Avho  fell  into  their  hands!  All  the 
torments  which  inventive  malice  could  devise  were  exer- 
cised upon  these  unhappy  victims ;  and  the  sight  of  their 
mangled  bodies  exasperated  tlie  army  to  a  fearful  i-etalia- 
tion.  Gustavus  Adolphus,  alone,  sullied  the  lustre  of  his 
heroic  cliaracter  by  no  act  of  revenge ;  and  the  aversion 
which  the  Bavarians  felt  towards  his  religion,  far  from 
making  him  depart  from  the  obligations  of  humanity 
towards  that  unfortunate  people,  seemed  to  impose  upon 
him  the  stricter  duty  to  honor  his  religion  by  a  more 
constant  clemency. 

The  approach  of  the  king  spread  terror  and  conster- 
nation in  the  capital,  which,  stripped  of  its  defenders, 
and  abandoned  by  its  principal  inhabitants,  placed  all  its 
liopes  in  the  magnanimity  of  the  conqueror.  By  an 
unconditional  and  voluntary  surrender  it  hoped  to  dis- 
arm his  vengeance  ;  and  sent  dejnitics  even  to  Freysingen 
to  lay  at  his  feet  the  keys  of  the  city.  Strongly  as  "the 
king  might  have  been  tempted  by  the  inhumanity  of  tlie 
Bavarians,  and  the  hostility  of  their  sovereign,  to  make 
a  di-eadful  use  of  the  rights  of  victory  ;  ]iressed  as  he 
was  by  Germans  to' avenge  the  fate  of  Magdeburg  on  the 
capital  of  its  destroyer,  this  great  prince  scorned  this 
mean  revenge;  and  the  very  helplessness  of  his  enemies 
disarmed  his  severity.  Contented  with  the  moi'e  noble 
triumph  of  conducting  the  Palatine  Frederick  with  the 
pomp  of  a  victor  into  tlie  very  palace  of  the  ]-)rijice  who 
had  been  the  chief  instrument  of  his  ruin,  and  the  usur])or 
of  his  tei-ritories,  he  heightened  the  brilliancy  of  liis  tri- 
umphal entry  by  the  brighter  splendor  of  nioderation 
and  clemer.cv. 

The  king  found  in  Munich  only  a  forsaken  palace,  for 
the  Elector's  treasures  had  been  transported  to  Werfen. 
The  magnificence  of  the  building  astonished  him;  and  he 
asked  the  guide  who  showed  the  apartments  who  was  the 
architect.  "No  other,"  replied  he,  "  than  the  Elector 
himself."  "I  wisli,"  said  the  king,  "I  had  this  archi- 
tect to  send  to  Stockholm."     "That,"  he  was  answered, 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  211 

"the  architect  will  take  care  to  prevent."  When  tlie 
arsenal  was  examined,  they  found  nothins:  but  c:irrriai;es, 
stripped  of  their  cannon.  The  latter  had  been  so  artfully 
concealed  under  the  floor  that  no  traces  of  them  re- 
mained ;  and  but  for  the  treachery  of  a  workman,  the 
deceit  would  not  have  been  detected.  "  Rise  up  from 
the  dead,"  said  the  king,  "and  come  to  judgment." 
The  floor  was  pulled  up,  and  one  liundred  and  forty 
pieces  of  cannon  discovered,  some  of  extraordinary  cal- 
ibre, which  had  been  principally  taken  in  the  Palatinate 
and  Bohemia.  A  treasure  of  thirty  thousand  gold  ducats, 
concealed  in  one  of  the  largest,  completed  the  pleasure 
which  the  king  received  from  this  valuable  acquisition. 

A  far  more  welcome  spectacle  still  Avould  have  been 
the  Bavarian  army  itself;  for  liis  march  into  the  heart  of 
Bavaria  had  been  undertaken  chiefly  with  the  view  of 
luring  them  from  their  intrenchments.  In  this  ex2)ec- 
tation  he  was  disappointed.  No  enemy  appeared ;  no 
entreaties,  however  urgent,  on  the  part  of  his  subjects,* 
could  induce  the  Elector  to  risk  the  remainder  of  his 
army  to  the  chances  of  a  battle.  Shut  up  in  IJatisbon,  he 
awaited  the  reinforcements  which  Wallenstein  was  bring- 
ing from  Bohemia  ;  and  endeavored,  in  the  meantime, 
to  amuse  his  enemy  and  keep  him  inactive  by  reviving 
the  negotiation  for  a  neutrality.  But  the  king's  distrust, 
too  often  and  too  justly  excited  by  his  previous  conduct, 
frustrated  this  design ;  and  the  intentional  delay  of  Wal- 
lenstein abandoned  Bavaria  to  the  Swedes. 

Tlius  far  had  Gustavus  advanced  from  victory  to  victory 
without  meeting  Avith  an  enemy  able  to  cope  with  him. 
A  part  of  Bavaria  and  Swabia,  the  bishoprics  of  Fraii- 
conia,  the  Lower  Palatinate,  and  the  archbishopric  of 
Mentz  lay  conquered  in  his  rear.  An  nninterru]>ted 
career  of  conquest  had  conducted  him  to  the  threshold 
of  Austria;  and  the  most  brilliant  success  had  fully  jus- 
tified the  plan  of  operations  which  he  had  formed  after 
the  battle  of  Breitenfeld.  If  he  had  not  succeeded  to  his 
wish  in  promoting  a  confederacy  among  the  Protestant 
States,  he  had  at  least  disarmed  or  weakened  the  League, 
carried  on  the  war  chiefly  at  its  expense,  lessened  the 
Emperor's  resources,  emboldened  the  weaker  States,  and 


212  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

while  he  laid  under  contribution  the  allies  of  the  Emperor, 
forced  a  way  through  their  territories  into  Austria  itself. 
Where  arms  were  unavailing,  the  greatest  service  was 
rendered  by  the  friendship  of  the  free  cities,  whose  affec- 
tions he  had  gained  by  the  double  ties  of  policy  and 
religion  ;  and,  as  long  as  he  should  maintain  his  superi- 
ority in  the  field,  he  might  reckon  on  everything  from 
their  zeal.  By  his  conquests  on  the  Rhine,  the  Spaniards 
were  cut  off  from  the  Lower  Palatinate,  even  if  the  state 
of  the  war  in  the  Netherlands  left  them  at  liberty  to 
iTiterfere  in  the  affairs  of  Germany.  The  Duke  of  Lor- 
raine, too,  after  his  unfortunate  campaign,  had  been  glad 
to  adopt  a  neutrality.  Even  the  numerous  garrisons  he 
had  left  behind  him  in  his  progress  through  Germany 
liad  not  diminished  his  army ;  and,  fresh  and  vigorous  as 
when  he  first  began  his  march,  he  now  stood  in  the  centre 
of  Bavaria,  determined  and  prepared  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  heart  of  Austria. 

While  Gustavus  Adolphus  thus  maintained  his  superi- 
ority within  the  empire,  fortune,  in  another  quarter,  had 
been  no  less  favorable  to  his  ally,  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 
By  the  arrangement  concerted  between  these  princes  at 
Halle,  after  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  the  conquest  of  Bohemia 
was  intrusted  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  while  the  king- 
reserved  for  himself  the  attack  upon  the  territories  of  tlie 
League.  The  first  fruits  which  the  Elector  reaped  from 
the  battle  of  Breitenfeld,  was  the  reconquest  of  Leipzig, 
which  was  shortly  followed  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Aus- 
trian garrisons  from  the  entire  circle.  Reinforced  by  the 
troops  who  deserted  to  him  from  the  hostile  garrisons, 
the  Saxon  General,  Arnheim,  marched  towards  Lusatia, 
which  had  been  overrun  by  an  Imperial  general,  Rudolph 
von  Tiefenbach,  in  order  to  chastise  the  Elector  for  em- 
bracing the  cause  of  the  enemy.  He  had  already  com- 
menced in  this  weakly  defended  province  the  usual  course 
of  devastation,  taken  several  towns,  and  terrified  Dresden 
itself  by  liis  approach,  when  his  destructive  progress  was 
suddenly  stopped  bj'  an  express  mandate  from  the  Em- 
peror to  spare  the  possessions  of  the  King  of  Saxony. 

Ferdinand  had  perceived  too  late  the  errors  of  that 
policy,   which   had   reduced   the   Elector   of   Saxony  to 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  213 

extremities,  and  forcibly  driven  this  powerful  monarch 
into  an  alliance  with  Sweden.  By  moderation,  equally  ill- 
timed,  he  now  wished  to  repair  if  possible  the  consequences 
of  his  hauii:htiness ;  and  thus  committed  a  second  error  in 
endeavoring  to  repair  the  first.  To  deprive  his  enemy 
of  so  powerful  an  ally,  he  had  opened,  through  the  inter- 
vention of  Spain,  a  negotiation  with  the  Elector ;  and  in 
order  to  facilitate  an  accommodation,  Tiefenbach  Avas 
ordered  immediately  to  retire  from  Saxony.  But  these 
concessions  of  the  Emperor,  far  from  producing  the 
desired  effect,  only  revealed  to  the  Elector  the  embar- 
rassment of  his  adversary  and  his  own  importance,  and 
emboldened  him  the  more  to  prosecute  the  advantages 
he  had  already  obtained.  How  could  he,  moreover,  with- 
out becomino-  charoeable  with  the  most  shameful  inorat- 
itude,  abandon  an  ally  to  whom  he  had  given  the  most 
solemn  assurances  of  fidelity,  and  to  whom  he  was  in- 
debted for  the  preservation  of  his  dominions,  and  even 
of  his  Electoral  dignity? 

The  Saxon  army,  now  relieved  from  the  necessity  of 
marching  into  Lusatia,  advanced  towards  Bohemia,  where 
a  combination  of  favorable  circumstances  seemed  to 
insure  them  an  easy  victory.  In  this  kingdom,  the  first 
scene  of  this  fatal  war,  the  flames  of  dissension  still 
smouldered  beneath  the  ashes,  while  the  discontent  of 
the  inhabitants  was  fomented  by  daily  acts  of  oppression 
and  tyranny.  On  every  side  this  unfortunate  country 
showed  si^ns  of  a  mournful  chansre.  Whole  districts  had 
changed  their  proprietors,  and  groaned  under  the  hated 
yoke  of  Koman  Catholic  masters,  whom  the  favor  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  Jesuits  had  enriched  with  the  plunder 
and  possessions  of  the  exiled  Protestants.  Others,  taking 
advantage  themselves  of  the  general  distress,  had  pur- 
chased, at  a  low  rate,  the  confiscated  estates.  Tlie  blood 
of  the  most  eminent  champions  of  liberty  had  been  shed 
upon  the  scaffold  ;  and  such  as  by  a  timely  flight  avoided 
that  fate  were  wandering  in  misery  far  from  their  native 
land,  while  the  obsequious  slaves  of  despotism  enjoyed 
their  patrimony.  Still  more  insupportable  than  the 
oppression  of  these  petty  tyrants,  was  the  restraint  of 
conscience  which  was  imposed  without  distinction  on  all 


214  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

the  Protestants  of  that  kingdom.  No  external  danger, 
no  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  nation,  however  stead- 
fast, not  even  tlie  fearful  lessons  of  past  experience  could 
check  in  the  Jesuits  the  rage  of  proselytisni ;  where  fair 
means  were  ineffectual,  recourse  was*  had  to  military 
force  to  bring  the  deluded  wanderers  within  the  pale  of 
the  church.  The  inhabitants  of  Joachinisthal,  on  the 
frontiers  between  Bohemia  and  Meissen,  were  the  chief 
sufferers  from  this  violence.  Two  imperial  commissaries, 
accompanied  by  as  many  Jesuits,  and  supported  by 
fifteen  musketeers,  made  their  appearance  in  this  peace- 
ful valley  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  heretics.  Where 
the  rhetoric  of  the  former  was  ineffectual,  the  forcibly 
quartering  the  latter  upon  the  houses,  and  threats  of 
banishment  and  fines  were  tried.  But  on  this  occasion, 
the  good  cause  i)revailed,  and  the  bold  resistance  of  this 
small  district  compelled  the  Emperor  disgracefully  to 
recall  his  mandate  of  conversion.  The  example  of  the 
court  had,  however,  afforded  a  precedent  to  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  empire,  and  seemed  to  justify  every  act 
of  oppression  which  their  insolence  tem])ted  them  to 
wreak  upon  the  Protestants.  It  is  not  surprising,  then, 
if  this  persecuted  party  was  favorable  to  a  revolntion, 
and  saw  with  pleasure  their  deliverers  on  the  fi-ontiers. 

The  Saxon  army  was  already  on  its  march  toAvards 
Prague,  the  imperial  garrisons  everywhere  retired  before 
them  ;  Schloeckenau,  Tetschcn,  Aussig,  Leutmeritz,  soon 
fell  into  the  enemy's  hands,  and  every  Roman  Catholic 
place  was  abandoned  to  ]ilunder.  Consternation  seized 
all  tlie  Papists  of  the  Empire  ;  and  conscious  of  the  out- 
rages which  they  themselves  liad  committed  on  the 
Protestants,  they  did  not  venture  to  abide  the  vengeful 
arrival  of  a  Protestant  army.  All  the  Roman  Catholics 
wlio  had  anvthino;  to  lose  fled  hastilv  from  the  countrv 
to  the  capital,  which  again  they  presently  abandoned. 
Prague  was  im prepared  for  an  attack,  and  was  too 
M-eakly  garrisoned  to  sustain  a  long  siege.  Too  late  had 
the  Emperor  resolved  to  despatch  Field-Marshal  Tiefen- 
bach  to  the  defence  of  this  ca])ital.  Before  the  imperial 
07-ders  could  reach  the  headquarters  of  that  general,  in 
Silesia,  the   Saxons  were   already  close  to  Prague,  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR.  215 

Pix)testant  inhabitants  of  which  sliowed  little  zeal,  while 
the  weakness  of  the  garrison  left  no  room  to  hope  a  long 
resistance.  In  this  fearful  state  of  embarrassment  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  Prague  looked  for  security  to  Wal- 
lenstein,  who  now  lived  in  that  city  as  a  private  in- 
dividual. But  far  from  lending  his  military  experience, 
and  the  weight  of  his  name,  towards  its  defence,  he 
seized  the  favorable  opportunity  to  satiate  his  thirst  for 
revenge.  If  he  did  not  actually  invite  the  Saxons  to 
Prague,  at  least  his  conduct  facilitated  its  capture. 
Though  unprepared,  the  town  might  still  hold  out  until 
succors  could  arrive ;  and  an  imperial  colonel.  Count 
jMaradas,  showed  serious  intentions  of  undertaking  its 
defence.  But  without  command  and  authority,  and 
liaving  no  support  but  his  own  zeal  and  courage,  he  did 
not  dare  to  venture  upon  such  a  step  without  the  advice  of 
a  superior.  He  therefore  consulted  the  Duke  of  Fried- 
land,  whose  approbation  might  supply  the  want  of  au- 
thority from  the  Emperor,  and  to  whom  the  Bohemian 
generals  were  referred  by  an  express  edict  of  the  court  in 
the  last  extremity.  He,  however,  artfully  excused  him- 
self, on  the  plea  of  holding  no  official  appointment,  and 
liis  long  retirement  from  the  political  world  ;  while  he 
weakened  the  resolution  of  the  subalterns  by  the  scruples 
which  he  suggested,  and  painted  in  the  strongest  colors. 
At  last,  to  render  the  consternation  general  and  complete, 
he  quitted  the  capital  with  his  whole  court,  however 
little  he  had  to  fear  from  its  capture  ;  and  the  city  was 
lost,  because,  by  his  departure,  he  showed  that  he  de- 
spaired of  its  safety.  His  example  was  followed  by  all 
the  Roman  Catholic  nobility,  the  generals  with  their 
troops,  the  clergy,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  crown.  All 
night  the  people  were  employed  in  saving  their  persons 
and  effects.  The  roads  to  Vienna  Avere  crowded  with 
fugitives,  who  scarcely  recovered  from  their  consternation 
till  they  reached  the  imperial  city.  Maradas  himself,  de- 
spairing of  the  safety  of  Prague,  followed  the  rest,  and  led 
his  small  detachment  to  Tabor,  where  he  awaited  the  event. 
Profound  silence  reio-ned  in  Prasrue,  when  the  Saxons 
next  morning  appeared  before  it;  no  preparations  were 
made   for   defence ;   not   a   single   shot   from   the   walls 


216  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

announced  an  intention  of  resistance.  On  the  contrary, 
a  crowd  of  spectators  from  the  town,  alhired  by  curiosity, 
came  flocking  round,  to  behold  the  foreign  army  ;  and 
the  peaceful  confidence  with  which  they  advanced  re- 
sembled a  friendly  salutation  more  than  a  hostile  recep- 
tion. From  the  concurrent  reports  of  these  people  the 
Swedes  learned  that  the  town  had  been  deserted  by  the 
troops,  and  that  the  government  had  fled  to  Budweiss. 
This  unexpected  and  inexplicable  absence  of  resistance 
excited  Arnheim's  distrust  the  more,  as  the  speedy 
approach  of  the  Silesian  succors  was  no  secret  to  him, 
and  as  he  knew  that  the  Saxon  army  was  too  indifferently 
provided  with  materials  for  undertaking  a  siege,  and  by 
far  too  weak  in  numbers  to  attempt  to  take  the  place  by 
storm.  Apprehensive  of  stratagem,  he  redoubled  his 
vigilance ;  and  he  continued  in  tliis  conviction  i;ntil 
Wallenstein's  house-steward,  whom  he  discovered  amomr 
the  crowd,  confirmed  to  him  this  intelligence.  "The 
town  is  ours  without  a  blow ! "  exclaimed  he  in  astonish- 
ment to  his  ofticers,  and  immediately  summoned  it  by  a 
trumpeter. 

The  citizens  of  Prague,  thus  shamefully  abandoned  by 
their  defenders,  had  long  taken  their  resolution  ;  all  that 
they  had  to  do  was  to  secure  their  properties  and  liberties 
by  an  advantageous  capitulation.  No  sooner  was  the 
treaty  signed  by  the  Saxon  general,  in  his  master's  name, 
than  the  gates  were  opened,Avithout  farther  opposition ; 
and  upon  the  11th  of  November,  1631,  the  army  made 
their  triumphal  entry.  The  Elector  soon  after  followed 
in  person,  to  receive  the  homage  of  those  Avhom  he  had 
newly  taken  under  his  protection  :  for  it  was  only  in  the 
character  of  protector  that  the  three  towns  of  Prague  hud 
surrendered  to  him.  Their  allegiance  to  the  Austrian 
monarchy  was  not  to  be  dissolved  by  the  step  they  had 
taken.  In  proportion  as  the  Papists'  apprehensions  of 
reprisals  on  the  part  of  the  Protestants  had  been  exag- 
gerated, so  was  tlieir  surprise  great  at  the  moderation  of 
the  Elector,  and  the  discipline  of  his  troops.  Field- 
Marshal  Arnheim  plainly  evinced,  on  this  occasion,  his 
respect  for  Wallenstein.  Not  content  with  sparing  his 
estates  on  his  march,   he  now  placed   guards   over   his 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  217 

palace,  in  Prague,  to  prevent  the  plunder  of  any  of  his 
effects.  Tlie  Roman  Catholics  of  the  town  were  allowed 
the  fullest  liberty  of  conscience ;  and  of  all  the  churches 
they  had  wrested  from  the  Protestants  four  only  were 
now  taken  back  from  them.  From  this  general  indulg- 
ence none  were  excluded  but  the  Jesuits,  who  were 
generally  considered  as  the  authors  of  all  past  grievances, 
and  thus  banished  the  kingdom. 

John  George  belied  not  the  submission  and  dependence 
with  which  the  terror  of  the  imperial  name  inspired  him  ; 
nor  did  he  indulge  at  Prague  in  a  coui-se  of  conduct 
which  would  assuredly  have  been  pursued  against  himself 
in  Dresden  by  imperial  generals,  such  as  Tilly  or  Wallen- 
stein.  He  carefully  distinguished  between  the  enemy 
with  whom  he  was  at  war,  and  the  head  of  the  Empire, 
to  whom  he  owed  obedience.  He  did  not  venture  to 
touch  the  household  furniture  of  the  latter,  while,  with- 
out scruple,  he  appropriated  and  transported  to  Dresden 
the  cannon  of  the  former.  He  did  not  take  up  his  resi- 
dence in  the  imperial  palace,  but  the  house  of  Lichten- 
stein  ;  too  modest  to  use  the  apartments  of  one  whom  he 
had  deprived  of  a  kingdom.  Had  this  trait  been  related 
of  a  great  man  and  a  hero  it  would  irresistibly  excite 
our  admiration ;  but  the  character  of  this  prince  leaves  us 
in  doubt  whether  this  moderation  ought  to  be  ascribed  to 
a  noble  self-command  or  to  the  littleness  of  a  weak  mmd, 
which  even  good  fortune  could  not  embolden,  and  liberty 
itself  could  not  strip  of  its  habituated  fetters. 

The  surrender  of  Prague,  which  was  quickly  followed 
by  that  of  most  of  the  other  towns,  effected  a  great  and 
sudden  change  in  Bohemia.  Many  of  the  Protestant 
nobility,  who  had  hitherto  been  wandering  about  m 
misery  now  returned  to  their  native  country  ;  and  Count 
Thurn,  the  famous  author  of  the  Bohemian  insurrection, 
enjoyed  the  triumph  of  returning  as  a  conqueror  to  the 
scene  of  his  crime  and  his  condemnation.  Over  the  very 
bridcre  where  the  heads  of  his  adherents,  exposed  to  view, 
hekrout  a  fearful  picture  of  the  fate  which  had  threatened 
himself,  he  now  made  his  triumphal  entry;  aiid  to  re- 
move these  ghastly  objects  was  his  first  care.  Hie  exiles 
ao-ain  took  possession  of  their  properties,  without  tlimR- 


218  THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR. 

ing  of  recompensing  for  the  purchase-money  the  present 
possessors,  who  had  mostly  taken  to  flight.  Even  though 
they  had  received  a  price  for  their  estates,  they  seized  on 
everything  which  had  once  been  their  own ;  and  many 
had  reason  to  rejoice  at  the  economy  of  the  late  posses- 
sors. The  lands  and  cattle  had  greatly  improved  in  their 
hands;  the  apartments  were  now  decorated  with  the 
most  costly  furniture;  the  cellars,  which  had  been  left 
empty,  were  richly  filled  ;  the  stables  supplied  ;  the  mag- 
azines stored  with  provisions.  But  distrusting  the  con- 
stancy of  that  good  fortune  which  had  so  unexpectedly 
smiled  upon  them,  they  hastened  to  get  quit  of  these 
insecure  possessions,  and  to  convert  their  immovable  into 
transferable  property. 

The  presence  of  the  Saxons  inspired  all  the  Protestants 
of  the  kingdom  with  courage;  and  both  in  the  country 
and  the  capital  crowds  flocked  to  the  newly-opened 
Protestant  churches.  Many,  Avhom  fear  alone  had  re- 
tained in  their  adherence  to  Popery,  now  openly  pro- 
fessed the  new  doctrine;  and  many  of  the  late  converts 
to  Roman  Catholicism  gladly  i-enounced  a  compulsory 
persuasion  to  follow  the  earlier  conviction  of  their  con- 
science. All  the  moderation  of  the  new  regency  could 
not  restrain  the  manifestation  of  that  just  displeasure 
which  this  persecuted  people  felt  against  tlieir  oppressors. 
They  made  a  fearful  and  cruel  use  of  their  newly-recov- 
ered rights;  and,  in  many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  their 
hatred  of  the  religion  which  they  had  been  compelled 
to  profess  could  be  satiated  only  by  the  blood  of  its 
adherents. 

Meantime  the  succors  Avhich  the  imperial  generals, 
Goetz  and  Tiefenbach,  were  conducting  from  Silesia,  had 
entered  Bohemia,  where  they  were  joined  by  some  of 
Tilly's  regiments,  from  the  IJpper  Palatinate.  In  order 
to  disperse  them  before  they  should  receive  any  further 
reinforcements,  Arnheim  advanced  with  part  of  his  army 
frotu  Prague,  and  made  a  vigorous  attack  on  their  in- 
trenchments  near  Limburg,  on  the  Elbe.  After  a  severe 
action,  not  without  great  loss, -he  drove  the  enemy  from 
their  fortified  camp,  and  forced  them,  b}^  his  heavy  fire, 
to  recross  the  Elbe,  and  to  destroy  the  bridge  which  thej 


THE    THIKTY    YEARs'    WAR.  219 

had  built  over  that  river.  Nevertheless,  the  Imperialists 
obtained  the  advantage  in  several  skirmishes,  and  the 
Croats  pushed  their  incursions  to  the  very  gates  of 
Prague.  Brilliant  and  promising  as  the  opening  of  the 
Bohemian  campaign  had  been,  the  issue  by  no  means 
satisfied  the  expectations  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Instead 
of  vigorously  following  up  their  advantages,  by  forcing  a 
passage  to  the  Svvedisli  army  through  the  conquered 
country,  and  then,  with  it,  attacking  the  imperial  power 
in  its  centre,  the  Saxons  weakened  themselves  in  a  war  of 
skirmishes,  in  Avhich  they  were  not  always  successful, 
while  they  lost  the  time  which  should  have  been  devoted 
to  greater  undertakings.  But  the  Elector's  subsequent 
conduct  betrayed  the  motives  which  had  prevented  him 
from  pushing  his  advantage  over  the  Emperor,  and  by 
consistent  measures  j^romoting  the  plans  of  the  King  of 
Sweden. 

The  Emperor  had  now  lost  the  greater  part  of  Bohe- 
mia, and  the  Saxons  were  advancing  against  Austria, 
"while  the  Swedish  monarch  was  rapidly  moving  to  the 
same  point  through  Franconia,  Swabia,  and  Bavaria.  A 
long  war  had  exhausted  the  strength  of  the  Austrian 
monai-chy,  Avasted  the  country,  and  diminished  its  armies. 
The  renown  of  its  victories  was  no  more,  as  well  as  the 
confidence  inspired  by  constant  success;  its  troops  had 
lost  the  obedience  and  discipline  to  which  those  of  the 
Swedish  monarch  owed  all  their  superiority  in  the  field. 
The  confederates  of  the  Emperor  were  disarmed,  or  their 
fidelity  shaken  by  the  danger  which  threatened  them- 
selves. Even  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  Austria's  most 
powerful  ally,  seemed  disposed  to  yield  to  the  seductive 
proposition  of  neutrality ;  while  his  suspicious  alliance 
with  France  had  long  been  a  subject  of  apprehension  to 
the  Emperor.  The  Bishops  of  Wurtzburg  and  Bamberg, 
the  Elector  of  Mentz,  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  were 
either  expelled  from  their  territories,  or  threatened  with 
immediate  attack;  Treves  had  placed  itself  under  the 
protection  of  France.  The  bravery  of  the  Hollanders 
gave  full  employment  to  the  Spanish  arms  in  the  Nether- 
lands; while  Gustavus  had  driven  them  from  the  Rhme. 
Poland  was  still  fettered  by  the  truce  which  subsisted 


220  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

between  that  country  and  Sweden.  The  Hungarian  front- 
ier was  threatened  by  the  Transylvanian  Prince,  Ragotsky, 
a  successor  of  Bethlem  Gabor,  and  the  inheritor  of  his 
restless  mind  ;  while  the  Porte  was  making  great  prepa- 
ration to  profit  by  the  favorable  conjuncture  for  aggres- 
sion. Most  of  the  Protestant  states,  encouraged  by  their 
protectoi"'s  success,  were  openly  and  actively  declaring 
against  the  Emperor.  All  the  resources  which  had  been 
obtained  by  the  violent  and  oppressive  extortions  of  Tilly 
and  Wallenstein  were  exhausted ;  all  these  depots,  maga- 
zines, and  rallying-points  were  now  lost  to  the  Emperor; 
and  the  war  could  no  longer  be  carried  on,  as  before,  at 
the  cost  of  others.  To  complete  his  embarrassment,  a 
dangerous  insurrection  broke  out  in  the  territory  of  the 
Ens,  where  the  ill-timed  religious  zeal  of  the  government 
had  provoked  the  Protestants  to  resistance ;  and  thus 
fanaticism  lit  its  torch  within  the  empire,  while  a  foreign 
enemy  was  already  on  its  frontier.  After  so  long  a  con- 
tinuance of  good  fortune,  such  brilliant  victories  and  ex- 
tensive conquests,  such  fruitless  effusion  of  blood,  the 
Emperor  saw  himself  a  second  time  on  the  brink  of  that 
abyss  into  which  he  was  so  near  falling  at  the  commence- 
ment of  his  reign.  If  Bavaria  should  embrace  the  neu- 
trality ;  if  Saxony  should  resist  the  tempting  offers  he 
had  held  out ;  and  France  resolve  to  attack  the  Spanish 
power  at  the  same  time  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Italy,  and 
in  Catalonia,  the  ruin  of  Austria  would  be  complete ;  the 
allied  powers  would  divide  its  spoils,  and  the  political 
system  of  Germany  would  undergo  a  total  change. 

The  chain  of  these  disasters  began  with  the  battle  of 
Breitenfeld,  the  unfortunate  issue  of  which  plainly  re- 
vealed the  long-decided  decline  of  the  Austrian  power, 
whose  weakness  had  hitherto  been  concealed  under  the 
dazzling  glitter  of  a  grand  name.  The  chief  cause  of  the 
Swedes'  superiority  in  the  field  was  evidently  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  unlimited  power  of  their  leader,  who  con- 
centrated in  himself  tlie  whole  strength  of  his  party;  and, 
unfettered  in  his  enterprises  by  any  higher  authority,  was 
complete  master  of  every  favorable  opportunity,  could 
control  all  his  means  to  the  accomplishment  of  liis  ends, 
and  was  responsible   to   none   but   himself.     But   since 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  221 

Wallenstein's  dismissal,  and  Tilly's  defeat,  the  very  re- 
verse of  this  course  was  pursued  by  the  Emperor  and  the 
League.  The  generals  wanted  authority  over  their  troops, 
and  liberty  of  acting  at  their  discretion;  the  soldiers 
were  deficient  in  discipline  and  obedience  ;  the  scattered 
corps  in  combined  operation ;  the  states  in  attachment  to 
the  cause ;  the  leaders  in  harmony  among  themselves,  in 
quickness  to  resolve,  and  firmness  to  execute.  What 
gave  the  Emperor's  enemy  so  decided  an  advantage  over 
him  was  not  so  much  their  superior  power  as  their  man- 
ner of  using  it.  The  League  and  the  Emperor  did  not 
want  means,  but  a  mind  capable  of  directing  them  with 
energy  and  effect.  Even  had  Count  Tilly  not  lost  his 
old  renown,  distrust  of  Bavaria  would  not  allow  the  Em- 
peror to  place  the  fate  of  Austria  in  the  hands  of  one  who 
had  never  concealed  his  attachment  to  the  Bavarian 
Elector.  The  urgent  want  which  Ferdinand  felt  was 
for  a  general  possessed  of  sufficient  experience  to  form 
and  to  command  an  army,  and  willing  at  the  same  time 
to  dedicate  his  services,  with  blind  devotion,  to  the  Aus- 
trian monarchy. 

Tills  choice  now  occupied   the  attention  of  the  Em- 
peror's privy  coimcil,   and  divided  the    opinions  of  its 
members.     In  order  to  oppose  one  monarch  to  another, 
and  by  the  presence  of  their  sovereign  to  animate  the 
courage  of  the  troops,  Ferdinand,  in  the  ardor  of  the 
moment,  had  offered  himself  to  be  the  leader  of  his  army; 
but  little  trouble  was  required  to  overturn  a  resolution 
which   was  the  offspring   of   despair   alone,  and   which 
yielded   at  once  to  calm  reflection.      But  the  situation 
which  his  dignity,  and  the  duties  of  administration,  pre- 
vented the  Emperor  from  holding,  might  be  filled  by  his 
son,  a  youth  of  talents  and  bravery,  and  of  whom  the 
subjects  of  Austria  had  already  formed  great  expecta- 
tions.    Called  by  his  birth  to  the  defence  of  a  monarchy, 
of  whose  crowns  he  wore  two  already,  Ferdinand  III., 
King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  united,  with  the  natural 
dignity  of  heir  to  the  throne,  the  respect  of  the  army,  and 
the  attachment  of  the  people,  whose  co-operation  was  in- 
dispensable to  him  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.     None  but 
the  beloved  heir  to  the  crown  could  venture  to  impose 


222  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

new  burdens  on  a  people  already  severely  oppressed  ;  his 
personal  presence  with  the  array  could  alone  suppress  the 
pernicious  jealousies  of  the  several  leaders,  and,  by  the 
influence  of  his  name,  restore  the  neglected  discipline  of 
the  troops  to  its  former  rigor.  If  so  young  a  leader  was 
devoid  of  the  maturity  of  judgment,  prudence,  and  mili- 
tary experience,  which  practice  alone  could  impart,  this 
deficiency  might  be  supplied  by  a  judicious  choice  of 
counsellors  and  assistants,  who,  under  the  cover  of  his 
name,  might  be  vested  with  supreme  authority. 

But  plausible  as  were  the  arguments  with  which  a  part 
of  the  ministry  supported  this  plan,  it  was  met  by  difli- 
culties  not  less  serious,  arising  from  the  distrust,  perhaps 
even  the  jealousy  of  the  Emperor,  and  also  from  the  des- 
perate state  of  affairs.  How  dangerous  was  it  to  entrust 
the  fate  of  the  monarchy  to  a  youth  who  was  himself  in 
need  of  counsel  and  support !  How  hazardous  to  oppose 
to  the  greatest  general  of  his  age  a  tyro,  whose  fitness  for 
so  important  a  post  had  never  yet  been  tested  by  expe- 
rience ;  whose  name,  as  yet  unknown  to  fame,  was  far  too 
powerless  to  inspire  a  dispirited  army  with  the  assurance 
of  future  victory!  What  a  new  burden  on  the  coun- 
try, to  support  the  state  a  royal  leader  was  required  to 
maintain,  and  which  the  prejudices  of  the  age  considered 
as  inseparable  from  his  presence  with  the  army !  How 
serious  a  consideration  for  the  prince  himself,  to  com- 
mence his  political  career  with  an  office  which  must  make 
him  the  scourge  of  his  people,  and  the  oppressor  of  the 
territories  which  he  was  hereafter  to  rule. 

But  not  only  was  a  general  to  be  found  for  the  army ; 
an  army  must  also  be  found  for  the  general.  Since  the 
compulsory  resignation  of  Wallenstein  the  Emperor  had 
defended  himself  more  by  the  assistance  of  Bavaria  and 
the  League  than  by  his  own  armies ;  and  it  was  this  de- 
pendence on  equivocal  allies  which  he  was  endeavorhig 
to  escape  by  the  appointment  of  a  general  of  his  own. 
But  what  possibility  was  there  of  raising  an  army  out  of 
nothing,  without  the  all-poAverful  aid  of  gold,  and  the 
inspiriting  name  of  a  victorious  commander ;  above  all, 
an  army  which,  by  its  discipline,  warlike  spirit,  and  ac- 
tivity should  be  fit  to  cope  with  the  experienced  troops 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  223 

of  the  northern  conqueror  ?  In  all  Europe,  there  was  but 
one  man  equal  to  tliis,  and  that  one  had  been  mortally 
affronted. 

The  moment  had  at  last  arrived  when  more  than  ordi- 
nary satisfaction  was  to  be  done  to  the  wounded  pride  of 
the  Duke  of  Friedland.  Fate  itself  had  been  his  avenger, 
and  an  unbroken  chain  of  disasters,  which  had  assailed 
Austria  from  the  day  of  his  dismissal,  had  wrung  from 
the  Emperor  the  humiliating  confession  that  with  this 
general  he  had  lost  his  right  arm.  Every  defeat  of  his 
troops  opened  afresh  this  wound ;  every  town  which  he 
lost  revived  in  the  mind  of  the  deceived  monarch  the 
memory  of  his  own  weakness  and  ingratitude.  It  would 
have  been  well  for  him  if,  in  the  offended  general,  he 
had  only  lost  a  leader  of  his  troops,  and  a  defender  of  his 
dominions ;  but  he  was  destined  to  find  in  him  an  enemy, 
and  the  most  dangerous  of  all,  since  he  was  least  armed 
against  the  stroke  of  treason. 

Removed  from  the  theatre  of  war,  and  condemned  to 
irksome  inaction,  while  his  rivals  gathered  laurels  on  the 
field  of  glory,  the  haughty  duke  had  beheld  these  changes 
of  fortune  with  affected  composure,  and  concealed,  under 
a  glittering  and  theatrical  pomp,  the  dark  designs  of  his 
restless  genius.  Torn  by  burning  passions  within,  while 
all  without  bespoke  calmness  and  indifference,  he  brooded 
over  projects  of  ambition  and  revenge,  and  slowly,  but 
surely,  advanced  towards  his  end.  All  that  he  owed  to 
the  Emperor  was  effaced  from  his  mind  ;  what  he  himself 
had  done  for  the  Emperor  Avas  imprinted  in  burning 
characters  on  his  memory.  To  his  insatiable  thirst  for 
power  the  Emperor's  ingratitude  was  welcome,  as  it 
seemed  to  tear  in  pieces  the  record  of  past  favors,  to 
absolve  from  him  every  obligation  towards  his  former 
benefactor.  In  the  disguise  of  a  righteous  retaliation,  the 
projects  dictated  by  his  ambition  now  appeared  to  him 
just  and  pure.  In  proportion  as  the  external  circle  of 
his  operations  was  narrowed,  the  world  of  hope  expanded 
before  him,  and  his  dreamy  imagination  revelled  in 
boundless  projects,  which,  in  any  mind  bxit  such  as  his, 
madness  alone  could  have  given  birth  to.  His  services 
had  raised  him  to  the  proudest  height  which  it  was  pos- 


224  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

sible  for  a  man,  by  his  own  efforts,  to  attain.  Fortune 
had  denied  him  nothing  which  the  subject  and  the  citizen 
could  lawfully  enjoy.  Till  tlie  moment  of  his  dismissal 
his  demands  had  met  with  no  refusal,  his  ambition  had 
met  with  no  check;  but  the  blow  which,  at  the  Diet 
of  Ratisbon,  humbled  him,  sliowed  him  the  difference 
between  original  and  deputed  power,  the  distance  be- 
tween the  subject  and  his  sovereign.  Roused  from  the 
intoxication  of  his  own  greatness  by  this  sudden  reverse 
of  fortune,  he  compared  the  authority  which  he  had 
possessed  with  that  which  had  deprived  him  of  it;  and 
his  ambition  marked  the  steps  which  it  had  yet  to  sur- 
mount upon  the  ladder  of  fortune.  From  the  moment  he 
had  so  bitterly  experienced  the  weight  of  sovereign 
power,  his  efforts  were  directed  to  attain  it  for  himself ; 
the  wrong  which  he  himself  had  suffered  made  him  a 
robber.  Had  he  not  been  outraged  by  injustice  he  might 
have  obediently  moved  in  his  orbit  round  the  majesty  of 
the  throne,  satisfied  with  the  glory  of  being  the  brightest 
of  its  satellites.  It  was  only  when  violently  forced  from 
its  sphere,  that  his  wandering  star  threw  in  disorder  the 
system  to  which  it  belonged,  and  came  in  destructive 
collision  with  its  sun. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  overrun  the  north  of  Germany; 
one  place  after  another  was  lost ;  and  at  Leipzig  the 
flower  of  the  Austiian  army  had  fallen.  The  intelligence 
of  this  defeat  soon  reached  the  ears  of  Wallenstein,  who, 
in  the  retired  obscurity  of  a  private  station  in  Prague, 
contemplated  from  a  calm  distance  the  tumult  of  war. 
The  news,  which  filled  the  breasts  of  the  Roman  Catholics 
with  dismay,  announced  to  him  the  return  of  greatness 
and  good  fortune.  For  him  was  Gustavus  Adolphus 
laboring.  Scarce  had  the  king  begun  to  gain  reputation 
by  his  exploits  Avhen  Wallenstein  lost  not  a  moment  to 
court  his  friendship,  and  to  make  common  cause  with  this 
successful  enemy  of  Austria.  Tlie  banished  Count  Thurn 
who  had  long  entered  the  service  of  Sweden,  undertook 
to  convey  Wallenstein's  congratulations  to  the  king,  and 
to  invite  him  to  a  close  alliance  with  the  duke.  Wallen- 
stein required  fifteen  thousand  men  from  the  king;  and 
with  these,  and  the  troops  he  himself  engaged  to  raise,  lie 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  225 

undertook  to  conquer  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  to  surprise 
Vienna,  and  drive  his  master,  tlie  Emperor,  before  him 
into  Italy.  Welcome  as  was  this  unexpected  proposition, 
its  extravagant  promises  were  naturally  calculated  to  ex- 
cite suspicion.  Gustavus  Adolphus  Avas  too  good  a  judge  of 
merit  to  reject  with  coldness  the  offers  of  one  who  might 
be  so  important  a  friend.  But  when  Wallenstein,  en- 
couraged by  the  favorable  reception  of  his  first  message, 
renewed  it  after  the  battle  of  Breitenfeld,  and  pressed 
for  a  decisive  answer,  the  prudent  monarch  hesitated  to 
trust  his  reputation  to  the  chimerical  projects  of  so  daring 
an  adventurer,  and  to  commit  so  large  a  force  to  the 
honesty  of  a  man  who  felt  no  shame  in  openly  avowing 
himself  a  traitor.  He  excused  himself,  therefore,  on  the 
plea  of  the  weakness  of  his  army,  which,  if  diminished  by 
so  large  a  detachment,  would  certainly  suffer  in  its  march 
through  the  empire;  and  thus,  perhaps,  by  excess  of 
caution,  lost  an  opportunity  of  putting  an  immediate  end 
to  the  war.  He  afterwards  endeavored  to  renew  the  nego- 
tiations ;  but  the  favorable  moment  was  past,  and  Wallen- 
stein's  offended  pride  never  forgave  the  first  neglect. 

But  the  king's  hesitation,  perhaps,  only  accelerated  the 
breach  which  their  characters  made  inevitable  sooner  or 
later.  Both  framed  by  nature  to  give  laws,  not  to  receive 
them,  they  could  not  long  have  co-operated  in  an  enter- 
prise which  eminently  demanded  mutual  submission  and 
sacrifices.  Wallenstein  was  nothing  where  he  was  not 
everything;  he  must  either  act  with  unlimited  power  or 
not  at  all.  So  cordially,  too,  did  Gustavus  dislike  con- 
trol, that  he  had  almost  renounced  his  advantageous 
alliance  with  France  because  it  threatened  to  fetter  his 
own  independent  judgment.  Wallenstein  was  lost  to  a 
party  if  he  could  not  lead  ;  the  latter  was,  if  possible,  still 
less  disposed  to  obey  the  instructions  of  another.  If  the 
pretensions  of  a  rival  would  be  so  irksome  to  the  Duke  of 
Friedland,  in  the  conduct  of  combined  operations,  in 
the  division  of  the  spoil  they  would  be  insupportable. 
The  proud  monarch  might  condescend  to  accept  the 
assistance  of  a  rebellious  subject  against  the  Emperor, 
and  to  reward  his  valuable  servicers  with  regal  munifi- 
cence; but  he  never  could  so  far  lose  sight  of  his  own 


226  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

dignity,  aud  the  majesty  of  royalty,  as  to  bestow  tlie 
recompense  which  the  extravagant  ambition  of  Wallen- 
steiu  demanded ;  and  requite  an  act  of  treason,  however 
useful,  with  a  crown.  In  him,  therefore,  even  if  all 
Europe  should  tacitly  acquiesce,  Wallenstein  had  reason 
to  expect  the  most  decided  and  formidable  opponent  to 
his  views  on  the  Bohemian  crown ;  and  in  all  Europe  he 
was  the  only  one  who  could  enforce  his  opposition. 
Constituted  Dictator  in  Germany  by  Wallenstein  himself, 
he  might  turn  his  arms  against  liim,  and  consider  himself 
bound  by  no  obligation  to  one  who  was  himself  a  traitor. 
There  was  no  room  for  a  Wallenstein  under  such  an  ally; 
and  it  was,  apparently,  this  conviction,  and  not  any 
supposed  designs  upon  the  imperial  throne,  that  he 
alluded  to,  when,  after  the  death  of  the  King  of  Sweden, 
he  exclaimed,  "  It  is  well  for  him  and  me  that  he  is  gone. 
The  German  Empire  does  not  require  two  such  leaders." 
His  first  scheme  of  revenge  on  the  house  of  Austria 
had  indeed  failed  ;  but  the  purpose  itself  remained  un- 
alterable ;  the  choice  of  means  alone  was  changed.  What 
he  had  failed  in  effecting  with  the  King  of  Sweden,  he 
hoped  to  obtain  with  less  difficulty  and  more  advantage 
from  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  Him  he  was  as  certain  of 
being  able  to  bend  to  his  views  as  he  had  always  been 
doubtful  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Having  always  main- 
tained a  good  understanding  with  his  old  friend  Arnheira, 
he  now  made  use  of  him  to  bring  about  an  alliance  with 
Saxony,  by  which  he  hoped  to  render  himself  equally 
formidable  to  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  Sweden.  He 
had  reason  to  expect  that  a  scheme,  which,  if  successful, 
would  deprive  the  Swedish  monarch  of  his  influence  in 
Germany,  would  be  welcomed  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
who  he  knew  was  jealous  of  the  power  and  offended  at 
the  lofty  pretensions  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  If  he  suc- 
ceeded in  separating  Saxony  from  the  Swedish  alliance, 
and  in  establishing,  conjointly  with  that  power,  a  third 
party  in  the  Empire,  the  fate  of  the  war  would  be  placed 
in  his  hand  ;  and  by  this  single  step  he  would  succeed  in 
gratifying  his  revenge  against  the  Emperor,  revenging 
the  neglect  of  the  Swedish  monarch,  and  on  the  ruin  of 
both  raising  the  edifice  of  his  own  greatness. 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  227 

But  whatever  course  he  might  follow  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  designs  he  could  not  carry  them  into  effect  with- 
out an  army  entirely  devoted  to  him.  Such  a  force  could 
not  be  secretly  raised  without  its  coming  to  the  knowl- 
edo-e  of  the  imperial  court,  wliere  it  would  naturally 
excite  suspicion,  and  thus  frustrate  his  design  in  the  very 
outset.  From  the  army,  too,  the  rebellious  purposes  for 
which  it  was  destined  must  be  concealed  till  the  very 
moment  of  execution,  since  it  could  scarcely  be  expected 
that  they  would  at  once  be  prepared  to  listen  to  the  voice 
of  a  traitor,  and  serve  against  their  legitimate  sovereign. 
Wallenstein,  therefore,  must  raise  it  publicly,  and  in 
name  of  the  Emperor,  and  be  j^laced  at  its  head,  with 
unlimited  authority,  by  the  Emperor  himself.  But  how 
could  this  be  accomplished  otherwise  than  by  his  being 
appointed  to  the  command  of  the  army,  and  entmisted 
with  full  powers  to  conduct  the  war.  Yet  neither  his 
pride  nor  his  interest  permitted  him  to  sue  in  person  for 
this  post,  and  as  a  suppliant  to  accept  from  the  favor  of 
the  Emperor  a  limited  power,  when  an  unlimited  author- 
ity might  be  extorted  from  his  fears.  In  order  to  make 
himself  the  master  of  the  terms  on  which  he  would 
resume  the  command  of  the  army,  his  course  was  to  wait 
until  the  post  should  be  forced  upon  him.  This  was 
the  advice  he  received  from  Arnheini,  and  this  the  end 
for  which  he  labored  with  profound  policy  and  restless 
activity. 

Convinced  that  extreme  necessity  would  alone  conquer 
the  Emperor's  irresolution,  and  render  powerless  the 
opposition  of  his  bitter  enemies,  Bavaria  and  Spain,  he 
henceforth  occupied  himself  in  promoting  the  success  of 
the  enemy,  and  in  increasing  the  embarrassments  of  his 
master.  It  was  apparently  by  his  instigation  and  advice 
that  the  Saxons,  when  on  the  route  to  Lusatia  and  Silesia, 
had  turned  their  march  towards  Bohemia,  and  overrun 
that  defenceless  kingdom,  where  their  rapid  conquests 
was  partly  the  result  of  his  measures.  By  tlie  fears 
which  he  affected  to  entertain  he  paralyzed  every  effort 
at  resistance;  and  his  precipitate  retreat  caused  the  deliv- 
ery of  the  capital  to  the  enemy.  At  a  conference  with 
the  Saxon  general,  Avhich  was  held  at  Kaunitz  under  the 


228  THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'    WAR. 

pretext  of  negotiating  for  a  peace,  the  seal  was  put  to 
the  conspiracy,  and  the  conquest  of  Bohemia  was  the 
first  fruits  of  this  mutual  understanding.  While  Walleu- 
stein  was  thus  personally  endeavoring  to  heighten  the 
perplexities  of  Austria,  and  while  the  rapid  movements 
of  the  Swedes  upon  the  Rhine  effectually  promoted  his 
designs,  his  friends  and  bribed  adherents  in  Vienna 
uttered  loud  complaints  of  the  public  calamities,  and 
represented  the  dismissal  of  the  general  as  the  sole  cause 
of  all  these  misfortunes.  "  Had  Wallenstein  commanded, 
matters  would  never  have  come  to  tliis,"  exclaimed  a 
thousand  voices ;  while  their  opinions  found  supporters, 
even  in  the  Emperor's  privy  council. 

Their  repeated  remonstrances  were  not  needed  to  con- 
vince the  embarrassed  Emperor  of  his  general's  merits, 
and  of  his  own  error.  His  dependence  on  Bavaria  and 
the  League  had  soon  become  insupportable ;  but  hitherto 
this  dependence  permitted  him  not  to  show  his  distrust, 
or  irritate  the  Elector  by  the  recall  of  Wallenstein.  But 
now,  when  his  necessities  grew  every  day  more  pi-essing, 
and  the  weakness  of  Bavaria  more  apparent,  he  could  no 
longer  hesitate  to  listen  to  the  friends  of  the  duke,  and  to 
consider  their  overtures  for  his  restoration  to  command. 
The  immense  riches  Wallenstein  possessed,  the  universal 
reputation  he  enjoyed,  the  rapidity  with  which  six  years 
before  he  had  assembled  an  army  of  forty  thousand  men, 
the  little  expense  at  which  he  had  maintained  this  for- 
midable force,  the  actions  he  had  performed  at  its  liead, 
and,  lastly,  the  zeal  and  fidelity  he  had  displayed  for  hJs 
master's  honor,  still  lived  in  the  Emperor's  recollection, 
and  made  Wallenstein  seem  to  him  the  ablest  instrument 
to  restore  the  balance  between  the  belligerent  powers,  to 
save  Austria,  and  preserve  the  Catholic  religion.  How- 
ever sensibly  the  imperial  pride  miglit  feel  the  humilia- 
tion in  being  forced  to  make  so  unequivocal  an  admission 
of  past  errors  and  present  necessity;  however  painful  it 
was  to  descend  to  humble  entreaties  from  the  height  of 
imperial  command ;  however  doubtful  the  fidelity  of  so 
deeply-injured  and  implacable  a  character;  however 
loudly  and  urgently  the  Spanish  minister  and  the  Elector 
of   Bavaria  protested   against   this  step,  the  immediate 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  229 

pressure  of  necessity  finally  overcame  every  other  con- 
sideration, and  the  friends  of  the  duke  were  empowered 
to  consult  him  on  the  subject,  and  to  hold  out  the  pros- 
pect of  his  restoration. 

Informed  of  all  that  was  transacted  in  the  Emperor's 
cabinet  to  his  advantage,  Wallenstein  possessed  sufficient 
self-command  to  conceal  his  inward  triumph  and  to 
assume  the  mask  of  indifference.  The  moment  of  ven- 
geance was  at  last  come,  and  his  proud  heart  exulted  in 
the  prospect  of  repaying  with  interest  the  injuries  of  the 
Emperor.  With  artful  eloquence  he  expatiated  upon  the 
hapjjy  tranquillity  of  a  private  station,  which  had  blessed 
him  since  his  retirement  from  a  political  stage.  Too 
long,  he  said,  had  he  tasted  the  pleasures  of  ease  and  in- 
dependence to  sacrifice  to  the  vain  phantom  of  glory  the 
uncertain  favor  of  princes.  All  his  desire  of  power  and 
distinction  were  extinct:  tranquillity  and  repose  were 
now  the  sole  object  of  his  wishes.  The  better  to  conceal 
his  real  impatience,  he  declined  the  Emperor's  invitation 
to  the  court,  but  at  the  same  time,  to  facilitate  the  nego- 
tiations, came  to  Znaim,  in  Moravia. 

At  first  it  was  proposed  to  limit  the  authority  to  be 
entrusted  to  him,  by  the  presence  of  a  superior,  in  order, 
hy  this  expedient  to  silence  the  objections  of  the  Elector 
of  Bavaria.  The  imperial  deputies,  Questenberg  and 
Werdenberg,  who,  as  old  friends  of  the  duke,  had  been 
employed  in  this  delicate  mission,  were  instructed  to  pro- 
pose that  the  King  of  Hungary  should  remain  with  the 
army,  and  learn  the  art  of  war  under  Wallenstein,  But 
the  very  mention  of  his  name  threatened  to  put  a  period 
to  the  Avhole  negotiation.  "  No  !  never,"  exclaimed  Wal- 
lenstein, "  will  i  submit  to  a  colleague  in  my  office.  No 
—  not  even  if  it  were  God  himself  Avith  Avhora  I  should 
have  to  share  my  command."  But  even  when  this  ob- 
noxious point  was  given  \xp.  Prince  Eggenberg,  the 
Emperor's  minister  and  favorite,  who  had  always  been 
the  steady  friend  and  zealous  champion  of  Wallenstein, 
and  was  therefore  expressly  sent  to  him,  exhausted  his 
eloquence  in  vain  to  overcome  the  pretended  reluctance 
of  the  duke.  "The  Emperor,"  he  admitted,  "had,  in 
Wallenstein,  thrown  away  the  most  costly  jewel  in  his 


230  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

crown  :  but  unwillingly  and  compulsorily  only  had  he 
taken  this  step,  whicli  he  had  since  deeply  repented  of; 
while  his  esteem  for  the  duke  had  remained  unaltered,  his 
favor  for  him  undiminished.  Of  these  sentiments  he  now 
gave  the  most  decisive  proof,  by  reposing  unlimited  con- 
fidence in  his  fidelity  and  capacity  to  repair  the  mistakes 
of  his  predecessors,  and  to  change  the  whole  aspect  of 
affairs.  It  would  be  great  and  noble  to  sacrifice  his  just 
indignation  to  the  good  of  his  country ;  dignified  and 
worthy  of  him  to  refute  the  evil  calumny  of  his  enemies 
by  the  double  warmth  of  his  zeal.  This  victory  over 
himself,"  concluded  the  prince,  "  would  crown  his  other 
unparalleled  services  to  the  empire,  and  render  him  the 
greatest  man  of  his  age." 

These  humiliating  confessions,  and  flattering  assurances, 
seemed  at  last  to  disarm  the  anger  of  the  duke ;  but  not 
before  he  had  disburdened  his  heart  of  his  reproaches 
against  the  Emperor,  pompously  dwelt  upon  his  own  ser- 
vices, and  humbled  to  the  utmost  the  monarch  who 
solicited  his  assistance,  did  he  condescend  to  listen  to  the 
attractive  proposals  of  the  minister.  As  if  he  yielded 
entirely  to  the  force  of  their  arguments,  he  condescended 
with  a  haughty  reluctance  to  that  which  was  the  most 
ardent  wish  of  his  heart ;  and  deigned  to  favor  the  am- 
bassadors with  a  ray  of  hope.  But  far  from  putting  an 
end  to  the  Emperor's  embarrassments,  by  giving  at  once 
a  full  and  unconditional  consent,  he  only  acceded  to  a 
part  of  his  demands,  that  he  might  exalt  the  value  of  that 
which  still  remained,  and  was  of  most  importance.  He 
accepted  the  command,  but  only  for  three  months ;  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  raising,  but  not  of  leading  an  army. 
He  wished  only  to  show  his  power  and  ability  in  its 
organization,  and  to  display  before  the  eyes  of  the  Em- 
peror the  greatness  of  that  assistance  which  he  still 
retained  in  his  hands.  Convinced  that  an  army  raised  by 
his  name  alone  would,  if  deprived  of  its  creator,  soon 
sink  again  into  nothing,  he  intended  it  to  serve  only  as  a 
decoy  to  draw  more  important  concessions  from  his  mas- 
ter. And  yet  Ferdinand  congratulated  himself,  even  in 
having  gained  so  much  as  he  had. 

Wallenstein  did  not  long  delay  to  fulfil  those  promises 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  231 

which  all  Germany  regarded  as  chimerical,  and  which 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  considered  as  extravagant.  But 
the  foundation  for  the  present  enterprise  had  been  long 
laid,  and  he  now  only  put  in  motion  the  machinery  which 
many  years  had  been  prepared  for  the  purpose.  Scarcely 
had  the  news  spread  of  Wallenstein's  levies,  when,  from 
every  quarter  of  the  Austrian  monarchy,  crowds  of 
soldiers  repaired  to  try  their  fortunes  under  this  expe- 
rienced general.  Many,  who  had  before  fought  under 
his  standards,  had  been  admiring  eye-witnesses  of  his 
great  actions,  and  experienced  his  magnanimity,  came 
forward  from  their  retirement  to  share  with  him  a 
second  time  both  booty  and  glory.  The  greatness  of  the 
pay  he  promised  attracted  thousands,  and  the  plentiful 
supplies  the  soldier  was  likely  to  enjoy  at  the  cost  of 
the  peasant  was  to  the  latter  an  irresistible  inducement  to 
embrace  the  military  life  at  once,  rather  than  be  the 
victim  of  its  oppression.  All  the  Austrian  provinces 
were  compelled  to  assist  in  the  equipment.  No  class 
was  exempt  from  taxation  —  no  dignity  or  privilege  from 
capitation.  The  Spanish  court,  as  well  as  the  King  of 
Hungary,  agreed  to  contribute  a  considerable  sum.  The 
ministers  made  large  presents,  while  Wallenstein  himself 
advanced  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  from  his  own 
income  to  hasten  the  armament.  The  poorer  officers  he 
supported  out  of  his  own  revenues;  and,  by  his  own 
example,  by  brilliant  promotions,  and  still  more  brilliant 
promises,  he  induced  all  wlio  were  able  to  raise  troops 
at  their  own  expense.  Whoever  raised  a  corps  at  his 
own  cost  was  to  be  its  commander.  In  the  appointment 
of  officers,  religion  made  no  difference.  Riches,  bravery, 
and  experience  wei'e  more  regarded  than  creed.  By 
this  uniform  treatment  of  different  religious  sects,  and 
still  more  by  his  express  declaration,  that  his  present  levy 
had  nothing  to  do  with  religion,  the  Protestant  subjects 
of  the  empire  were  tranquillized,  and  reconciled  to  bear 
their  share  of  the  public  burdens.  The  duke,  at  tlie 
same  time,  did  not  omit  to  treat,  in  his  own  name,  with 
foreign  states  for  men  and  money.  He  prevailed  on  tlie 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  a  second  time,  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
the  Emperor.     Poland  was   urged   to   supply  him  with 


232  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Cossacks,  and  Italy  with  warlike  necessaries.  Before  the 
three  months  were  expired  the  army,  which  was  assembled 
in  Moravia,  amounted  to  no  less  than  forty  thousand  men, 
chiefly  drawn  from  the  unconquered  parts  of  Bohemia, 
from  Moravia,  Silesia,  and  the  German  provinces  of  the 
House  of  Austria.  What  to  every  one  had  appeared 
impracticable,  Wallenstein,  to  the  astonishment  of  all 
Europe,  had  in  a  short  time  effected.  The  charm  of  his 
name,  his  treasures,  and  his  genius  had  assembled 
thousands  in  arms,  where  before  Austria  had  only  looked 
for  hundreds.  Furnished,  even  to  superfluity,  with  all 
necessaries,  commanded  by  experienced  officers,  and 
inflamed  by  enthusiasm  which  assured  itself  of  victory, 
this  newly-created  army  only  awaited  the  signal  of  their 
leader  to  show  themselves,  by  the  bravery  of  their  deeds, 
worthy  of  his  choice. 

The  duke  had  fulfilled  his  promise,  and  the  troops 
were  ready  to  take  the  field  ;  he  then  retired,  and  left  to 
the  Emperor  to  choose  a  commander.  But  it  would 
liave  been  as  easy  to  raise  a  second  army  like  the  first  as 
to  find  any  other  commander  for  it  than  Wallenstein. 
This  promising  army,  the  last  hope  of  the  Emperor,  was 
nothing  but  an  illusion  as  soon  as  the  charm  was  dissolved 
which  had  called  it  into  existence  ;  by  Wallenstein  it  had 
been  raised,  and  without  him  it  sank  like  a  creation  of 
magic  into  its  original  nothingness.  Its  officers  were 
either  bound  to  him  as  his  debtors,  or,  as  his  creditors, 
closely  connected  with  his  interests,  and  the  preservation 
of  his  power.  The  regiments  he  had  entrusted  to  his 
own  relations,  creatures,  and  favorites.  He,  and  he 
alone,  "could  discharge  to  th&  troops  the  extravagant 
promises  by  which  they  had  been  lured  into  his  service. 
His  pledged  word  was  the  only  security  on  which  their 
bold  expectations  rested  ;  a  blind  reliance  on  his  omnipo- 
tence, the  only  tie  which  linked  together  in  one  common 
life  and  soul  the  various  impulses  of  their  zeal.  There 
was  an  end  of  the  good  fortune  of  each  individual  if  he 
retired,  who  alone  was  the  voucher  of  its  fulfilment. 

However  little  Wallenstein  was  serious  in  his  refusal, 
he  successfully  employed  this  means  to  terrify  the  Em- 
peror into  consenting  to  his  extravagant  conditions.     The 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  233 

progress  of  the  enemy  every  day  increased  the  pressure 
of  the  Emperor's  difficulties,  while  the  remedy  was  also 
close  at  hand ;  a  word  from  him  might  terminate  tlie 
general  embarrassment.  Prince  Eggenberg  at  length 
received  orders,  for  the  third  and  last  time,  at  any  cost 
and  sacrifice,  to  induce  his  friend,  Wallenstein,  to  accept 
the  command. 

He  found  him  at  Znaim,  in  Moravia,  pompously  sur- 
rounded by  tlie  troops,  the  possession  of  which  he  made 
the  Emperor  so  earnestly  to  long  for.  As  a  sujjpliant  did 
the  haughty  subject  receive  the  deputy  of  his  sovereign. 
"  He  never  could  trust,"  he  said,  "  to  a  restoration  to 
command,  which  he  owed  to  the  Emperor's  necessities, 
and  not  to  his  sense  of  justice.  He  was  now  courted 
because  the  danger  had  reached  its  height,  and  safety  was 
hoped  for  from  his  arm  only  ;  but  his  successful  services 
would  soon  cause  the  servant  to  be  forgotten,  and  the 
return  of  security  would  bring  back  renewed  ingratitude. 
If  he  deceived  the  expectations  formed  of  him,  his  long- 
earned  renown  would  be  forfeited ;  even  if  he  fulfilled 
them,  his  repose  and  happiness  must  be  sacrificed.  Soon 
would  envy  be  excited  anew,  and  the  dependent  monarch 
would  not  hesitate  a  second  time  to  make  an  offering  of 
convenience  to  a  servant  whom  he  could  now  dispense 
with.  Better  for  him  at  once,  and  voluntarily,  to  resign 
a  post  from  which  sooner  or  later  the  intrigues  of  his 
enemies  would  expel  him.  Security  and  content  were  to 
be  found  in  the  bosom  of  private  life;  and  nothing  but 
the  wish  to  oblige  the  Emperor  had  induced  him,  reluc- 
tantly enough,  to  relinquish  for  a  time  his  blissful  re- 
pose." 

Tired  of  this  long  farce,  the  minister  at  last  assumed  a 
serious  tone,  and  threatened  the  obstinate  duke  with  the 
Emperor's  resentment  if  he  persisted  in  his  refusal. 
"Low  enough  had  the  imperial  dignity,"  he  added, 
"stooped  already;  and  yet,  instead  of  exciting  his  mag- 
nanimity by  its  condescension,  had  only  flattered  his  pride 
and  increased  his  obstinacy.  If  this  sacrifice  had  been 
made  in  vain,  he  would  not  answer  but  that  the  suppli- 
ant might  be  converted  into  the  sovereign,  and  that  the 
monarch  might  not  avenge  his  injured  dignity  on  liis 


234  THE    THIRTY    YEAIiS     WAR. 

rebellious  subject.  However  greatly  Ferdinana  may- 
have  erred,  the  Emperor  at  leaet  had  a  claim  to  obedi- 
ence; the  man  might  be  mistaken,  but  the  monarch 
could  not  confess  his  error.  If  the  Duke  of  Friedland 
had  suffered  by  an  unjust  decree,  he  might  yet  be  recom- 
pensed for  all  his  losses ;  tlie  wound  which  it  had  itself 
inflicted  the  hand  of  Majesty  might  heal  If  he  asked 
secui-ity  for  his  person  and  his  dignities,  the  Emperor's 
equity  would  refuse  him  no  i-easonable  demand.  Majesty 
contemned,  admitted  not  of  any  atonement ;  disobedience 
to  its  commands  cancelled  the  most  brilliant  services. 
The  Emperor  required  his  services,  and  as  Emperor  he 
demanded  them.  Whatever  price  Wallenstein  might  set 
upon  them,  the  Emperor  would  readily  agree  to  ;  but  he 
demanded  obedience,  or  the  weight  of  his  indignation 
should  crush  the  refractory  servant." 

Wallenstein,  whose  extensive  possessions  within  the 
Austrian  monarchy  were  momentarily  exposed  to  the 
power  of  the  Emperor,  was  keenly  sensible  that  this  was 
no  idle  threat ;  yet  it  was  not  fear  that  at  last  overcame 
his  affected  reluctance.  This  imperious  tone  of  itself 
was  to  his  mind  a  jjlain  proof  of  tlie  weakness  and  despair 
which  dictated  it,  while  the  Emperor's  readiness  to  yield 
all  his  demands  convinced  him  that  he  had  attained  the 
summit  of  his  wishes.  lie  now  made  a  show  of  yielding 
to  the  persuasions  of  Eggenberg ;  and  left  him  in  order  to 
write  down  the  conditions  on  which  he  accepted  the  com- 
mand. 

Not  without  apprehension  did  the  minister  receive  the 
writing  in  which  the  proudest  of  subjects  had  prescribed 
laws  to  the  proudest  of  sovereigns.  But  however  little 
confidence  he  had  in  the  moderation  of  his  friend,  the 
extravagant  contents  of  his  writing  surpassed  even  his 
worst  expectations.  Wallenstein  required  the  uncon- 
trolled command  over  all  the  German  armies  of  Austria 
and  Spain,  with  unlimited  powers  to  reward  and  punish. 
Neither  the  King  of  Hungary,  nor  the  Emperor  himself, 
were  to  appear  in  the  army,  still  less  to  exercise  any  act 
of  authority  over  it.  No  commission  in  the  army,  no  pen- 
sion or  letter  of  grace,  was  to  be  granted  by  tlie  Emperor 
without  Wallenstein's  approval.     All  the  conquests  and 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  235 

confiscations  that  should  take  place  were  to  be  placed 
entirely  at  Wallenstein's  disposal,  to  the  exclusion  of 
every  other  tribunal.  For  his  ordinary  pay,  an  imperial 
hereditary  estate  was  to  be  assigned  him,  with  another  of 
the  conquered  estates  within  the  empire  for  his  extraordi- 
nary expenses.  Every  Austrian  province  was  to  be 
opened  to  him  if  he  required  it  in  case  of  retreat.  He 
farther  demanded  the  assurance  of  the  possession  of  the 
Duchy  of  Mecklenburg,  in  the  event  of  a  future  peace; 
and  a  formal  and  timely  intimation,  if  it  should  be 
deemed  necessary  a  second  time  to  deprive  him  of  the 
command. 

In  vain  the  minister  entreated  him  to  moderate  his 
demands,  which,  if  granted,  would  deprive  the  Emperor 
of  all  authority  over  his  own  troops,  and  make  him 
absolutely  dependent  on  his  general.  The  value  placed  on 
his  services  had  been  too  plainly  manifested  to  prevent 
him  dictating  the  price  at  which  they  were  to  be  pur- 
chased. If  the  pressure  of  circumstances  compelled  the 
Emperor  to  grant  these  demands,  it  was  more  than  a 
mere  feeling  of  haughtiness  and  desire  of  revenge  which 
induced  the  duke  to  make  them.  His  plans  of  re- 
bellion Avere  formed  to  their  success,  every  one  of  the 
conditions  for  which  Wallenstein  stipulated  in  this  treaty 
with  the  court  was  indispensable.  Those  plans  required 
that  the  Emperor  should  be  deprived  of  all  authority  in 
Germany,  and  be  placed  at  the  mercy  of  his  general ;  and 
this  object  woiild  be  attained  the  moment  Ferdinand 
subscribed  the  required  conditions.  The  use  Avhich  Wal- 
lenstein intended  to  make  of  his  army  (widely  different 
indeed  from  that  for  which  it  was  entrusted  to  him), 
brooked  not  of  a  divided  power,  and  still  less  of  an 
authority  superior  to  his  own.  To  be  the  sole  master  of 
the  will  of  his  troops,  he  must  also  be  the  sole  master  of 
their  destinies ;  insensibly  to  supplant  his  sovereign,  and 
to  transfer  permanently  to  his  own  person  the  rights  of 
sovereignty,  which  were  only  lent  to  him  for  a  time  by  a 
higher  authority,  he  must  cautiously  keep  the  latter  out 
of  the  view  of  the  army.  Hence  his  obstinate  refusal  to 
allow  any  prince  of  the  house  of  Austria  to  be  present 
with  the  army.     The  liberty  of  free  disposal  of  all  the 


236  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

conquered  and  confiscated  estates  in  the  empire  would 
also  afford  him  fearful  means  of  purchasing  dependents 
and  instruments  of  his  plans,  and  of  acting  the  dictator  in 
Germany  more  absolutely  tlian  ever  any  emperor  did  in 
time  of  peace.  By  the  right  to  use  any  of  the  Austrian 
provinces  as  a  place  of  refuge,  in  case  of  need,  he  had  full 
power  to  hold  the  Emperor  a  prisoner  by  means  of  his 
own  forces,  and  within  his  own  dominions ;  to  exhaust  the 
sti-ength  and  resources  of  these  countries,  and  to  under- 
mine the  power  of  Austria  in  its  very  foundation. 

Whatever  might  be  the  issue  he  had  equally  secured 
his  own  advantage  by  the  conditions  he  had  extorted 
from  the  Emperor.  If  circumstances  proved  favorable  to 
his  daring  project,  this  treaty  with  the  Emperor  facili- 
tated its  execution;  if,  on  the  contrary,  the  course  of 
things  ran  counter  to  it,  it  would  at  least  afford  him  a 
brilliant  compensation  for  the  failure  of  his  plans.  But 
how  could  he  consider  an  agreement  valid  which  was 
extorted  from  his  sovereign  and  based  upon  treason  ? 
How  could  he  hope  to  blind  the  Emperor  by  a  written 
agreement,  in  the  face  of  a  law  which  condemned  to 
death  every  one  who  should  have  the  presumption  to 
impose  conditions  upon  him?  But  this  criminal  was  the 
most  indispensable  man  in  the  empire,  and  Ferdinand, 
well  practised  in  dissimulation,  granted  him  for  the 
present  all  he  required. 

At  last  then  the  imperial  army  had  found  a  com- 
mander-in-chief worthy  of  the  name.  Every  other  au- 
thority in  the  army,  even  that  of  the  Emperor  himself, 
ceased  from  the  moment  Wallenstein  assumed  the  com- 
mander's baton,  and  every  act  was  invalid  which  did  not 
proceed  from  him.  From  the  banks  of  the  Danube  to 
tliose  of  the  Weser  and  the  Oder,  was  felt  the  life-giving 
dawning  of  this  new  star;  a  new  spirit  seemed  to  inspire 
the  troops  of  the  Emperor,  a  new  epoch  of  the  war  began. 
The  Papists  form  fresh  hopes,  the  Protestant  beholds 
with  anxiety  the  changed  course  of  affairs. 

The  greater  the  price  at  wliich  the  services  of  the  new 
general  had  been  purchased,  the  greater  justly  were  the 
expectations  from  those  wliich  tlae  court  of  the  Emperor 
entertained.     But  the  duke  was  in   no   hurry   to   fulfil 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  237 

these  expectations.  Already  in  the  vicinity  of  Bohemia, 
and  at  the  head  of  a  formidable  force,  he  had  but  to 
show  himself  there  in  order  to  overpower  the  exhausted 
force  of  the  Saxons,  and  brilliantly  to  commence  his  new 
career  by  the  reconquest  of  that  kingdom.  But,  con- 
tented with  harassing  the  enemy  with  indecisive  skir- 
mishes of  his  Croats,  he  abandoned  the  best  part  of  that 
kingdom  to  be  plundered,  and  moved  calmly  forward  in 
pursuit  of  his  own  selfish  plans.  His  design  was,  not  to 
conquer  the  Saxons,  but  to  unite  with  them.  Exclusively 
occupied  with  this  important  object,  he  remained  inactive 
in  the  hope  of  conquering  more  surely  by  means  of  nego- 
tiation. He  left  no  expedient  vmtried  to  detach  this 
prince  from  the  Swedish  alliance  ;  and  Ferdinand  himself, 
ever  inclined  to  an  accommodation  with  this  prince, 
approved  of  this  proceeding.  But  the  great  debt  which 
Saxony  owed  to  Sweden  was  as  yet  too  freshly  remem- 
bered to  allow  of  such  an  act  of  perfidy ;  and  even  had 
the  Elector  been  disposed  to  yield  to  the  temptation,  the 
equivocal  character  of  Wallenstein,  and  the  bad  character 
of  Austrian  policy,  precluded  any  reliance  in  the  integrity 
of  its  promises.  Notorious  already  as  a  treacherous 
statesman,  he  met  not  with  faith  upon  the  very  occasion 
when  perhaps  he  intended  to  act  honestly;  and,  more- 
over, was  denied,  by  circumstances,  the  opportunity  of 
proving  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions  by  the  disclosure 
of  his  real  motives. 

He  therefore  unwillingly  resolved  to  extort  by  force 
of  arms  what  he  could  not  obtain  by  negotiation.  Sud- 
denly assembling  his  troops,  he  appeared  before  Prague 
ere  the  Saxons  had  time  to  advance  to  its  relief.  After 
a  short  resistance  the  treachery  of  some  Cai:)uchins  opens 
the  gates  to  one  of  his  regiments  ;  and  the  garrison,  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  the  citadel,  soon  laid  down  their 
arms  upon  disgraceful  conditions.  Master  of  the  capital, 
he  hoped  to  carry  on  more  successfully  his  negotiations 
at  the  Saxon  court;  but  even  while  he  was  rencAving  his 
proposals  to  Arnheim,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  them 
weight  by  striking  a  decisive  blow.  He  hastened  to 
seize  the  narrow  passes  between  Aussig  and  Pirna,  with 
a  view  of  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  Saxons  into  their 


238  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

own  country ;  but  the  rapidity  of  Arnheim's  operations 
fortunately  extricated  them  from  the  danger.  After  the 
retreat  of  this  general,  Egra  and  Leutmeritz,  the  last 
strongholds  of  the  Saxons,  surrendered  to  the  con- 
queror, and  the  whole  kingdom  was  restored  to  its  legiti- 
mate sovereign  in  less  time  than  it  had  been  lost. 

Wallenstein,  less  occupied  with  the  interests  of  his 
master  than  with  the  furtherance  of  liis  own  plans,  now 
purposed  to  carry  the  war  into  Saxony,  and  by  ravaging 
his  territories  compel  the  Elector  to  enter  into  a  private 
treaty  with  the  Emperor,  or  rather  with  himself.  But, 
however  little  accustomed  he  was  to  make  his  will  bend 
to  circumstances,  he  now  perceived  the  necessity  of  post- 
poning his  favorite  scheme  for  a  time  to  a  more  pressing 
emergency.  While  he  M^as  driving  the  Saxons  from 
Bohemia,  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  been  gaining  the  victo- 
ries, already  detailed,  on  the  Rhine  and  Danube,  and 
carried  the  war  through  Franconia  and  Swabia  to  the 
frontiers  of  Bavaria.  Maximilian,  defeated  on  the  Lech, 
and  deprived  by  death  of  Count  Tilly,  his  best  support, 
urgently  solicited  the  Emperor  to  send  with  all  speed  the 
Duke  of  Friedland  to  his  assistance,  from  Bohemia,  and 
by  the  defence  of  Bavaria  to  avert  the  danger  from 
Austria  itself.  He  also  made  the  same  request  of  Wal- 
lenstein, and  entreated  him,  till  he  could  himself  come 
with  the  main  force,  to  despatch  in  the  meantime  a  few 
regiments  to  his  aid.  Ferdinand  seconded  the  request 
with  all  his  influence,  and  one  messenger  after  another 
was  sent  to  Wallenstein  urging  him  to  move  towards  the 
Danube. 

It  now  appeared  how  completely  the  Emperor  had  sacri- 
ficed his  authority  in  surrendering  to  another  the  supreme 
command  of  his  troops.  Indifferent  to  MaximHian's  en- 
treaties, and  deaf  to  the  Emperor's  repeated  commands, 
Wallenstein  remained  inactive  in  Bohemia  and  aban- 
doned the  Elector  to  his  fate.  The  remembrance  of  the 
evil  service  which  Maximilian  had  rendered  him  with  the 
Emperor  at  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  was  deeply  engraved 
on  the  implacable  mind  of  the  duke,  and  the  Elector's 
late  attempts  to  prevent  his  reinstatement  were  no  secret 
to  him.     The  moment  of  avenging  this  affront  had  now 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  239 

arrived,  and  Maximilian  was  doomed  to  pay  dearly  for 
his  folly  in  provoking  the  most  revengeful  of  men.  Wal- 
lenstein  maintained  that  Bohemia  ought  not  to  be  left 
exposed,  and  that  Austria  could  not  be  better  protected 
than  by  allowing  the  Swedish  army  to  waste  its  strength 
before  the  Bavarian  fortress.  Thus,  by  the  arm  of  the 
Swedes,  he  chastised  his  enemy ;  and,  while  one  place 
after  another  fell  into  their  hands,  he  allowed  the  Elector 
vainly  to  await  his  arrival  in  Ratisbon.  It  was  only 
when  the  complete  subjugation  of  Bohemia  left  him 
without  excuse,  and  the  conquests  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
in  Bavaria  threatened  Austria  itself,  that  he  yielded  to 
the  pressing  entreaties  of  the  Elector  and  the  Emperor, 
and  determined  to  effect  the  long-expected  union  with 
the  former ;  an  event,  which,  according  to  the  general 
anticipation  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  would  decide  the 
fate  of  the  campaign. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  too  weak  in  numbers  to  cope  even 
with  Wallenstein's  force  alone,  naturally  dreaded  the 
junction  of  such  powerful  armies;  and  the  little  energy 
he  used  to  prevent  it  was  the  occasion  of  great  surprise. 
Apparently  he  reckoned  too  much  on  the  hatred  which 
alienated  the  leaders,  and  seemed  to  render  their  effectual 
co-operation  imj^robable.  When  the  event  contradicted 
his  views  it  was  too  late  to  repair  his  error.  On  the  first 
certain  intelligence  he  received  of  their  designs  he 
hastened  to  the  Upper  Palatinate  for  the  purpose  of  inter- 
cepting the  Elector,  but  the  latter  had  already  arrived 
there,  and  the  junction  had  been  effected  at  Egra. 

This  frontier  town  had  been  chosen  by  Wallenstein 
for  the  scene  of  his  triumph  over  his  proud  rival,  Not 
content  with  having  seen  him,  as  it  were,  a  suppliant  at 
his  feet,  he  imposed  upon  him  the  hard  condition  of  leav- 
ing his  territories  in  his  rear  exposed  to  the  enemy,  and 
declaring  by  this  long  march  to  meet  him,  the  necessity 
and  distress  to  which  he  was  reduced.  Even  to  this 
humiliation  the  haughty  prince  patiently  submitted.  It 
had  cost  him  a  severe  struggle  to  ask  for  protection  of 
the  man  who,  if  his  own  wishes  had  been  consulted, 
would  never  have  had  the  power  of  granting  it ;  but 
having  once  made  up  his  mind  to  it,  he  was  ready  to  bear 


240  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

all  the  annoyances  which  were  inseparable  from  that 
resolve,  and  sufficiently  master  of  himself  to  put  up  with 
petty  grievances  when  an  important  end  was  in  view. 

But  whatever  pains  it  had  cost  to  effect  this  junction, 
it  was  equally  difficult  to  settle  the  conditions  on  which 
it  was  to  be  maintained.  The  united  army  must  be 
placed  under  the  command  of  one  individual,  if  any 
object  was  to  be  gained  by  the  union,  and  each  general 
was  equally  averse  to  yield  to  the  superior  authority  of 
the  other.  If  Maximilian  rested  his  claim  on  his  electoral 
dignity,  the  nobleness  of  his  descent,  and  his  influence  in 
the  empire,  Walienstein's  military  renown  and  the  un- 
limited command  conferred  on  him  by  the  Emperor, 
gave  an  equally  strong  title  to  it.  If  it  was  deeply 
humiliating  to  the  pride  of  the  former  to  serve  under  an 
imperial  subject,  the  idea  of  imposing  laAvs  on  so  imperi- 
ous a  spirit  flattered  in  the  same  degree  the  haughtiness 
of  Wallenstein.  An  obstinate  dispute  ensued,  which, 
however,  terminated  in  a  mutual  compromise  to  Walien- 
stein's advantage.  To  him  was  assigned  the  unlimited 
command  of  both  armies,  particularly  in  battle,  while  the 
Elector  was  deprived  of  all  power  of  altering  the  order 
of  battle,  or  even  the  route  of  the  army.  He  retained 
only  the  bare  right  of  punishing  and  rewarding  his  own 
troops,  and  the  free  use  of  these  when  not  acting  in  con- 
junction with  the  Imperialists. 

After  these  preliminaries  were  settled  the  two  generals 
at  last  ventured  upon  an  interview  ;  but  not  until  they 
had  mutually  promised  to  bury  the  past  in  oblivion,  and 
all  tlie  outward  formalities  of  a  reconciliation  had  been 
settled.  According  to  agreement,  they  publicly  embraced 
in  the  sight  of  their  troops,  and  made  mutual  pi-ofessions 
of  friendship,  while  in  reality  the  hearts  of  both  were 
overflowing  with  malice.  Maximilian,  well  versed  in 
dissimulation,  had  sufficient  command  over  himself  not 
to  betray  in  a  single  feature  his  real  feelings ;  but  a 
malicious  triumph  sparkled  in  the  eyes  of  Wallenstein, 
and  the  constraint  which  was  visible  in  all  his  movements 
betrayed  the  violence  of  the  emotion  which  overpowered 
his  proud  soul. 

The  combined  Imperial  and  Bavarian  armies  amounted 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  241 

to  nearly  sixty  thousand  men,  chiefly  veterans.  Before  tliis 
force  the  King  of  Sweden  was  not  in  a  condition  to  keep 
the  field.  As  his  attempt  to  prevent  their  junction  had 
failed,  he  commenced  a  rapid  retreat  into  Franconia,  and 
awaited  there  for  some  decisive  movement  on  the  part  of 
the  enemy  in  order  to  form  his  own  plans.  The  position 
of  the  combined  armies  between  the  frontiers  of  Saxony 
and  Bavaria  left  it  for  some  time  doubtful  whether  they 
would  remove  the  war  into  the  former  or  endeavor  to 
drive  the  Swedes  from  the  Danube  and  deliver  Bavaria. 
Saxony  had  been  stripped  of  troojDS  by  Arnheim,  who 
was  pursuing  his  conquests  in  Silesia,  not  without  a  secret 
design,  it  was  generally  supposed,  of  favoring  the  en- 
trance of  the  Duke  of  Friedland  into  that  electorate, 
and  of  thus  driving  the  irresolute  John  George  into  peace 
with  the  Emperor.  Gustavus  Adoljihus  himself,  fully 
persuaded  that  Wallensteiu's  views  were  directed  against 
Saxony,  hastily  despatched  a  strong  reinforcement  to  the 
assistance  of  his  confederate,  with  the  intention,  as  soon 
as  circumstances  would  allow,  of  following  with  the 
main  body.  But  the  movements  of  Wallensteiu's  army 
soon  led  him  to  suspect  that  he  himself  was  the  object  of 
attack ;  and  the  duke's  march  through  the  Upper  Pala- 
tinate placed  the  matter  beyond  a  doubt.  The  question 
now  was,  how  to  provide  for  his  own  security,  and  the 
prize  was  no  longer  his  supremacy,  but  his  very  exist- 
ence. His  fertile  genius  must  now  supply  the  means,  not 
of  conquest,  but  of  jireservation.  The  approach  of  the 
enemy  had  surprised  him  before  he  had  time  to  concen- 
trate his  troops,  which  were  scattered  all  over  Germany, 
or  to  summon  his  allies  to  his  aid.  Too  Aveak  to  meet  the 
enemy  in  the  field,  he  had  no  choice  left  but  either  to 
throw  himself  into  Nuremberg,  and  run  the  risk  of  being 
shut  up  in  its  walls,  or  to  sacrifice  that  city  and  await 
a  reinforcement  under  the  cannon  of  Donauwerth.  In- 
different to  danger  or  difliculty,  while  he  obeyed  the  call 
of  humanity  or  honor,  he  chose  the  first  without  hesita- 
tion, firmly  resolved  to  bury  himself  with  his  whole  army 
under  the  ruins  of  Nuremberg  rather  than  to  purchase 
his  own  safety  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  confederates. 

Measures  were  immediately  taken  to  surround  the  city 


242  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

and  suburbs  with  redoubts,  and  to  form  an  intrenched 
camp.  Several  thousand  workmen  immediately  com- 
menced this  extensive  work,  and  an  heroic  determination 
to  hazard  life  and  property  in  the  common  cause  ani- 
mated the  inhabitants  of  Nurembercj,  A  trench  eio;ht 
feet  deep  and  twelve  broad  surrounded  the  whole  forti- 
fication; the  lines  were  defended  by  redoubts  and  bat- 
teries, the  gates  by  half-moons.  The  river  Pegnitz, 
which  flows  through  Nuremberg,  divided  the  whole  camp 
into  two  semicircles,  whose  communication  was  secured 
by  several  bridges.  About  three  hundred  pieces  of  can- 
non defended  the  town-walls  and  the  iutrencliments. 
The  peasantry  from  the  neighboring  villages,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Nuremberg,  assisted  the  Swedish  soldiers 
so  zealously  that  on  the  seventh  day  the  army  was 
able  to  enter  the  camp,  and  in  a  fortnight  this  great  work 
was  completed. 

While  these  operations  were  carried  on  without  the 
walls,  the  magistrates  of  Nuremberg  were  busily  occupied 
in  filling  the  magazines  with  provisions  and  ammunition 
for  a  long  siege.  Measures  were  taken,  at  the  same  time, 
to  secure  tlie  health  of  the  inhabitants,  which  was  likely 
to  be  endangered  by  the  conflux  of  so  many  peojjle ; 
cleanliness  was  enforced  by  the  strictest  regulations.  In 
order,  if  necessary,  to  support  the  king,  the  youth  of  the 
city  were  embodied  and  trained  to  arms,  the  militia  of 
the  town  considerably  reinforced,  and  a  new  regnnent 
raised,  consisting  of  four-and-twenty  names,  according  to 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  Gustavus  had,  in  the  mean- 
time, called  to  liis  assistance  his  allies,  Duke  William  of 
Weimar  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Cassel ;  and  or- 
dered his  generals  on  the  Rhine,  in  Thurmgia  and  Lower 
Saxony,  to  commence  their  marcli  immediately,  and  join 
him  with  their  troops  in  Nuremberg.  His  army,  which 
was  encamped  within  the  lines,  did  not  amount  to  more 
than  sixteen  thousand  men,  scarcely  a  third  of  the 
enemy. 

The  Imperialists  had,  in  the  meantime,  by  slow  marches, 
advanced  to  Neumark,  where  Wallcnstein  made  a  general 
review.  At  the  sight  of  tliis  formidable  force  he  could 
not  refrain  from  indulging  in  a  childish  boast :     "  In  four 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR.  243 

days,"  said  he,  "  it  will  be  shown  whethei-  I  oi-  the  King 
of  Sweden  is  to  be  master  of  the  world."  Yet,  notwith- 
standing his  superiority,  he  did  nothing  to  fulfil  his 
promise ;  and  even  let  slip  the  op])ortunity  of  crushing 
his  enemy,  when  the  latter  had  the  hardihood  to  leave  his 
lines  to  meet  him.  "  Battles  enough  liave  been  fought," 
was  his  answer  to  those  who  advised  him  to  attack  the 
king,  "  it  is  now  time  to  try  another  method."  Wallen- 
stein's  well-founded  reputation  required  not  any  of  those 
rash  enterprises  on  which  younger  soldiers  rush  in  hope 
of  gaining  a  name.  Satisfied  that  the  enemy's  despair 
would  dearly  sell  a  victory,  while  a  defeat  would  irre- 
trievably ruin  the  Emperor's  affairs,  he  resolved  to  wear 
out  the  ardor  of  his  oj^ponent  by  a  tedious  blockade,  and 
by  thus  deiDriving  him  of  every  opportunity  of  availing 
himself  of  his  impetuous  bravery,  take  from  him  the  very 
advantage  which  had  hitherto  rendered  him  invincible. 
Without  making  any  attack,  therefore,  he  erected  a 
strong  fortified  camp  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pegnitz,  and 
opposite  Nuremberg;  and,  by  this  well-chosen  position, 
cut  off  from  the  city  and  the  camp  of  Gustavus  all  sup- 
plies from  Franconia,  Swabia,  and  Thuringia.  Thus  he 
held  in  siege  at  once  the  city  and  the  king,  and  flattered 
himself  with  the  hope  of  slowly,  but  surely,  wearing  out 
by  famine  and  pestilence  the  courage  of  his  ojDponent 
whom  he  had  no  wish  to  encounter  in  the  field. 

Little  aware,  however,  of  the  resources  and  strength  of 
liis  adversary,  Wallenstein  had  not  taken  sufficient  precau- 
tions to  avert  from  himself  the  fate  he  was  designing  for 
others.  From  the  whole  of  the  neighboring  country, 
the  peasantry  had  fled  with  their  proj^erty ;  and  what 
little  provision  remained  must  be  obstinately  contested 
with  the  Swedes.  The  king  spared  the  magazines  within 
the  town,  as  long  as  it  was  possible  to  provision  his  army 
from  without ;  and  these  forays  produced  constant  skir- 
mishes between  the  Croats  and  the  Swedish  cavalry,  of 
which  the  surrounding  country  exhibited  the  most  melan- 
choly traces.  The  necessaries  of  life  must  be  obtained 
sword  in  hand ;  and  the  foraging  parties  could  not  ven- 
ture out  Avithout  a  numerous  escort.  And  when  this 
Bujjply   failed,  the   town   opened   its   magazines   to   the 


244  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

king,  but  Wallenstein  had  to  support  his  troops  from 
a  distance.  A  large  convoy  from  Bavaria  was  on  its  way 
to  him  with  an  escort  of  a  thousand  men.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  having  received  intelligence  of  its  approach, 
immediately  sent  out  a  regiment  of  cavalry  to  intercept 
it;  and  the  darkness  of  the  night  favored  the  enterprise. 
The  whole  convoy,  with  the  town  in  which  it  was,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes;  the  imperial  escort  was 
cut  to  pieces;  about  twelve  hundred  cattle  carried  off ; 
and  a  thousand  wagons  loaded  with  bread,  which  could 
not  be  brought  away,  were  set  on  fire.  Seven  regiments, 
which  Wallenstein  had  sent  forward  to  Altdorp  to  cover 
the  entrance  of  the  long  and  anxiously  expected  convoy, 
were  attacked  by  the  king,  who  had,  in  like  manner, 
advanced  to  cover  the  retreat  of  his  cavalry,  and  routed 
after  an  obstinate  action,  being  driven  back  into  the 
imperial  camp  with  the  loss  of  four  hundred  men.  So 
many  checks  and  difficulties,  and  so  firm  and  unexpected 
a  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  king,  made  the  Duke  of 
Friedland  repent  that  he  had  declined  to  hazard  a  battle. 
The  strength  of  the  Swedish  camp  rendered  an  attack 
impracticable  ;  and  the  armed  youth  of  Nuremberg  served 
the  king  as  a  nursery  from  which  he  could  supply  his 
loss  of  troops.  The  want  of  provisions,  which  began  to  be 
felt  in  the  imperial  camp  as  strongly  as  in  the  Swedish, 
rendered  it  uncertam  which  party  would  be  first  com- 
pelled to  give  way. 

Fifteen  days  had  the  two  armies  now  remained  in  view 
of  each  other,  equally  defended  by  inaccessible  intrench- 
ments,  without  attempting  anything  more  than  slight 
attacks  and  unimportant  skirmishes.  On  both  sides  in- 
fectious diseases,  the  natural  consequence  of  bad  food 
and  a  crowded  population,  had  occasioned  a  greater  loss 
than  the  sword.  And  this  evil  daily  increased.  But  at 
length  the  long-expected  succors  arrived  in  the  Swedish 
camp  ;  and  by  this  strong  reinforcement  the  king  was  now 
enabled  to  obey  the  dictates  of  his  native  cournge,  and  to 
break  the  chains  which  had  hitherto  fettered  him. 

In  obedience  to  his  requisitions,  the  Duke  of  Weimar 
had  hastily  drawn  together  a  corps  from  the  garrisons  in 
Lower  Saxony  and  Thuringia,  which,  at  Schweinfurt,  in 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  245 

Franconia,  was  joined  by  four  Saxon  regiments,  and  at 
Kitzingen  by  the  corjDS  of  the  Rhine,  which  the  Land- 
grave of  Hesse  and  the  Palatine  of  Birkenfeld  despatched 
to  the  relief  of  the  king.  The  chancellor,  Oxenstiern, 
undertook  to  lead  this  force  to  its  destination.  After 
being  joined  at  Windsheim  by  the  Duke  of  Weimar 
himself,  and  the  Swedish  general.  Banner,  he  advanced 
by  rapid  marches  to  Bruck  and  Eltersdorf,  where  he 
passed  the  Rednitz,  and  reached  the  Swedish  camp  in 
safety.  This  reinforcement  amounted  to  nearly  fifty 
thousand  men,  and  was  attended  by  a  train  of  sixty 
pieces  of  cannon,  and  four  thousand  baggage  wagons. 
Gustavus  now  saw  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of 
nearly  seventy  thousand  strong,  without  reckoning  the 
militia  of  Nuremberg,  which  in  case  of  necessity,  could 
bring  into  the  field  about  thirty  thousand  fighting  men ; 
a  formidable  force,  opposed  to  another  not  less  formi- 
dable. The  war  seemed  at  length  compressed  to  the  point 
of  a  single  battle,  which  was  to  decide  its  fearful  issue. 
With  divided  sympathies,  Europe  looked  with  anxiety 
to  this  scene,  where  the  whole  strength  of  the  two  con- 
tending parties  was  fearfully  drawn,  as  it  were,  to  a 
focus. 

If,  before  the  arrival  of  the  Swedish  succors,  a  want 
of  provisions  had  been  felt,  the  evil  was  now  fearfully 
increased  to  a  dreadful  height  in  both  camps,  for  Wallen- 
stein  had  also  received  reinforcements  from  Bavaria. 
Besides  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  con- 
fronted to  each  other,  and  more  than  fifty  thousand 
horses  in  the  two  armies,  and  besides  the  inhabitants  of 
Nuremberg,  whose  number  far  exceeded  the  Swedish 
army,  there  were  in  the  camp  of  Wallenstein  about 
fifteen  thousand  women,  with  as  many  drivers,  and 
nearly  the  same  number  in  that  of  the  Swedes.  The 
custom  of  the  time  permitted  the  soldier  to  carry  his 
family  with  him  to  the  field.  A  number  of  prostitutes 
followed  the  Imperialists;  while,  with  the  view  of  pre- 
venting such  excesses,  Gustavus'  care  for  the  morals  of 
his  soldiers  promoted  marriages.  For  the  rising  genera- 
tion who  had  this  camp  for  their  home  and  country, 
regular  military  schools  were  established,  which  educated 


246  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

a  race  of  excellent  warriors,  by  which  means  the  army- 
might  in  a  manner  recruit  itself  in  the  course  of  a  long 
campaign.  No  wonder,  then,  if  these  wandering  nations 
exhausted  every  territory  in  which  tliey  encaixiped,  and 
by  their  immense  consumption  raised  the  necessaries  of 
life  to  an  exorbitant  price.  All  the  mills  of  Nuremberg 
were  insufficient  to  grind  the  corn  required  for  each  day ; 
and  fifteen  thousand  pounds  of  bread,  which  were  daily 
delivered  by  the  town  into  the  Swedisli  camp,  excited 
without  allaying  the  hunger  of  the  soldiers.  The  laudable 
exertions  of  the  magistrates  of  Nuremberg  could  not 
prevent  the  greater  part  of  the  horses  from  dying  for 
want  of  forage,  while  the  increasing  mortality  in  the 
camp  consigned  more  than  a  hundred  men  daily  to  the 
grave. 

To  put  an  end  to  these  distresses,  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
relying  on  his  numerical  superiority,  left  his  lines  on  the 
twenty-fifth  day,  forming  before  the  enemy  in  order  of 
battle,  while  he  cannonaded  the  duke's  camp  from  three  bat- 
teries erected  on  the  side  of  the  Rednitz.  But  the  duke 
remained  immovable  in  his  intrenchraents  and  contented 
himself  with  answering  this  challenge  by  a  distant  fire  of 
cannon  and  musketry.  His  plan  was  to  wear  out  the 
king  by  his  inactivity,  and  by  the  force  of  famine  to  over- 
come his  resolute  determination  ;  and  neither  the  remon- 
strances of  Maximilian,  and  the  impatience  of  his  army, 
nor  the  ridicule  of  his  opponent,  could  shake  his  purpose. 
Gustavus,  deceived  in  his  hope  of  forcing  a  battle,  and 
compelled  by  his  increasing  necessities,  now  attempted 
impossibilities,  and  resolved  to  storm  a  position  which 
art  and  nature  had  combined  to  render  impregnable. 

Entrusting  his  own  camp  to  the  militia  of  Nuremberg 
on  the  fifty-oightli  day  of  his  encampment  (tl)e  festival 
of  St.  Bartholomew),  he  advanced  in  full  order  of  battle, 
and  passing  the  Rednitz  at  Furth,  easily  drove  the  enemy's 
outposts  before  liim.  The  main  army  of  the  Imperialists 
was  posted  on  the  steep  heights  between  tlie  Biber  and 
the  Rednitz,  called  the  Old  Fortress  and  Altenberg; 
while  the  camp  itself,  commanded  by  these  eminences, 
s]iread  out  immeasurably  along  the  plain.  On  these 
lieights   the  whole  of  the   artillery   was   placed.     Deej) 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  247 

trenches  surrounded  inaccessible  redoubts,  while  thick 
barricades,  with  pointed  palisades,  defended  the  ap- 
proaches to  the  lieights,  from  tlie  summits  of  which 
Wallenstein  calmly  and  securely  discharged  the  lightnings 
of  his  artillery  from  amid  the  dark  thunder-clouds  of 
smoke.  A  destructive  fire  of  musketry  was  maintained 
behind  the  breastworks,  and  a  hundred  pieces  of  cannon 
threatened  the  desperate  assailant  with  certain  destruc- 
tion. Against  this  dangerous  post  Gustavus  now  di- 
rected his  attack ;  five  hundred  musketeers,  supported 
by  a  few  infantry  (for  a  greater  number  could  not  act 
in  the  narrow  space),  enjoyed  the  unenvied  privilege  of 
first  throwing  themselves  into  the  open  jaws  of  death. 
The  assault  was  furious,  the  resistance  obstinate.  Ex- 
posed to  the  whole  fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery,  and 
infuriate  by  the  prospect  of  inevitable  death,  these  deter- 
mined warriors  rushed  forward  to  storm  the  heights ; 
which,  in  an  instant,  converted  into  a  flaming  volcano, 
discharged  on  them  a  shower  of  shot.  At  the  same 
moment,  the  heavy  cavalry  rushed  forward  into  the 
openings  which  the  artillery  had  made  in  the  close  ranks 
of  the  assailants,  and  divided  them ;  till  the  intrepid 
band,  conquered  by  tlie  strength  of  nature  and  of  man, 
took  to  flight,  leaving  a  hundred  dead  upon  the  field. 
To  Germans  had  Gustavus  yielded  this  post  of  honor. 
Exasperated  at  their  retreat,  he  now  led  on  his  Finlanders 
to  the  attack,  thinking,  by  their  northern  courage,  to 
sliame  the  cowardice  of  the  Germans.  But  they,  also, 
after  a  similar  hot  reception,  yielded  to  the  superiority  of 
the  enemy ;  and  a  third  regiment  succeeded  them  to 
experience  the  same  fate.  This  was  replaced  by  a  fourth, 
a  fifth,  and  a  sixth ;  so  that,  during  a  ten  hour's  action 
every  regiment  was  brought  to  the  attack  to  retire  with 
bloody  Toss  from  the  contest.  A  thousand  mangled 
bodies  covered  the  field ;  yet  Gustavus  undauntedly 
maintained  the  attack,  and  Wallenstein  held  his  position 
unshaken. 

In  the  meantime  a  sharp  contest  had  taken  place  be- 
tween the  imperial  cavalry  and  the  left  wing  of  the 
Swedes,  which  was  posted  in  a  thicket  on  the  Rednitz, 
with  varying  success,  but  with  equal  intrepidity  and  loss 


248  THE    THIRTY    YEARS*   WAR. 

on  both  sides.  The  Duke  of  Friedland  and  Prince 
Bernard  of  Weimar  had  each  a  horse  shot  under  them  ; 
the  king  himself  had  the  sole  of  liis  boot  carried  off  by  a 
cannon  ball.  The  combat  was  maintained  with  undi- 
minished obstinacy,  till  the  approach  of  night  separated 
the  combatants.  But  the  Swedes  had.  advanced  too  far 
to  retreat  without  hazard.  While  the  king  was  seeking: 
an  officer  to  convey  to  the  regiments  the  order  to  retreat, 
he  met  Colonel  Hepburn,  a  brave  Scotchman,  whose 
native  courage  alone  had  drawn  him  from  the  camp  to 
share  in  the  dangers  of  the  day.  Offended  with  the  king 
for  having  not  long  before  preferi'ed  a  younger  officer 
for  some  post  of  danger,  he  had  rashly  vowed  never 
again  to  draw  his  sword  for  the  king.  To  him  Gustavus 
now  addressed,  himself,  praising  his  courage,  and  re- 
questing him  to  order  the  regiments  to  retreat.  "  Sire," 
replied  the  brave  soldier,  "  it  is  the  only  service  I  cannot 
refuse  to  your  Majesty  ;  for  it  is  a  hazardous  one,"  —  and 
immediately  hastened  to  carry  the  command.  One  of 
the  heights  above  tlie  old  fortress  had,  in  the  heat  of  the 
action,  been  carried  by  the  Duke  of  Weimar.  It  com- 
mapded  the  hills  and  the  whole  camp.  But  the  heavy 
rain  which  fell  during  the  night  rendered  it  impossible 
to  draw  up  the  cannon ;  and  this  post,  which  had  been 
gained  with  so  much  bloodshed,  was  also  voluntarily  aban- 
doned Diffident  of  fortune,  which  forsook  him  on  this  de- 
cisive day,  the  king  did  not  venture  the  following  morning 
to  renew  the  attack  with  his  exhausted  troops ;  and  van- 
quished for  the  first  time,  even  because  he  was  not  victor, 
he  led  back  his  troops  over  the  Rednitz.  Two  thousand 
dead  which  he  left  behind  him  on  the  field  tcstiiied  to 
the  extent  of  his  loss ;  and  the  Duke  of  Friedland  re- 
mained unconquered  within  his  lines. 

For  fourteen  days  after  this  action  the  two  armies  still 
continued  in  front  of  each  other,  each  in  the  hope  that 
tlie  other  would  be  the  first  to  give  way.  Every  day 
reduced  their  provisions,  and  as  scarcity  became  greater, 
the  excesses  of  the  soldiers,  rendered  furious,  exercised 
the  wildest  outrages  on  the  peasantry.  The  increasing 
distress  broke  up  all  discipline  and  order  in  the  Swedish 
camp ;  and  the  German  regiments,  in  particular,  distin- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  249 

guished  themselves  for  the  ravages  they  practised  indis- 
criminately on  friend  and  foe.  The  weak  hand  of  a  single 
individual  could  not  check  excesses  encouraged  by  the 
silence,  if  not  the  actual  example,  of  the  inferior  officers. 
These  shameful  breaches  of  discipline,  on  the  maintenance 
of  which  he  had  hitherto  justly  prided  himself,  severely 
pained  the  king;  and  the  vehemence  with  which  he 
reproached  the  German  officers  for  their  negligence  be- 
spoke the  liveliness  of  his  emotion.  "  It  is  you  your- 
selves, Germans,"  said  he,  "  that  rob  your  native  country 
and  ruin  your  own  confederates  in  the  faith.  As  God  is 
my  judge,  I  abhor  you,  I  loathe  you;  my  heart  sinks 
within  me  whenever  I  look  upon  you.  Ye  break  my 
orders  ;  ye  are  the  cause  that  the  world  curses  me,  that 
the  tears  of  poverty  follow  me,  that  complaints  ring  in 
nay  ear  — '  The  king,  our  friend,  does  us  more  harm  than 
even  our  worst  enemies.'  On  your  account  I  have 
stripped  my  own  kingdom  of  its  treasures,  and  s])ent 
upon  you  more  than  forty  tons  of  gold  ;  *  while  from  your 
German  empire  I  have  not  received  the  least  aid.  I  gave 
you  a  share  of  all  that  God  had  given  to  me ;  and  had  ye 
regarded  my  orders  I  would  have  gladly  shared  with  you 
all  my  future  acquisitions.  Your  want  of  discipline  con- 
vinces me  of  your  evil  intentions,  whatever  cause  I  might 
otherwise  have  to  applaud  your  bravery." 

Nuremberg  had  exerted  itself,  almost  beyond  its  power, 
to  subsist  for  eleven  weeks  the  vast  crowd  Avhich  was 
compressed  within  its  boundaries ;  but  its  means  were  at 
length  exhausted,  and  the  king's  more  numerous  party 
was  obliged  to  determine  on  a  retreat.  By  the  casualties 
of  war  and  sickness  Nuremberg  had  lost  more  than  ten 
thousand  of  its  inhabitants,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus 
nearly  twenty  thousand  of  his  soldiers.  The  fields 
around  the  city  were  trampled  down,  the  villages  lay  in 
ashes,  the  plundered  peasantry  lay  faint  and  dying  on 
the  highways ;  foul  odors  infected  the  air,  and  bad  food, 
the  exhalations  from  so  dense  a  population,  and  so  many 
putrifying  carcasses,  together  with  the  heat  of  the  dog- 
days,  produced  a  desolating  pestilence  which  raged 
among  men  and  beasts,  and  long  after  the  retreat  of  both 

*  A  ton  of  gold  in  Sweden  amounts  to  one  hundred  thousand  rix  dollars. 


250  THE   THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

armies  continued  to  load  the  country  with  misery  and 
distress.  Affected  by  the  general  distress,  and  despairing 
of  conquering  the  steady  determination  of  the  Duke  of 
Friedland,  the  king  broke  up  his  camp  on  the  8th  Sep- 
tember, leaving  in  Nuremberg  a  sufficient  garrison.  He 
advanced  in  full  order  of  battle  before  the  enemy,  who 
remained  motionless,  and  did  not  attempt  in  the  least  to 
harass  his  retreat.  His  route  lay  by  the  Aisch  and  Wind- 
sheim  towards  Neustadt,  where  he  halted  five  days  to 
refresh  his  troops,  and  also  to  be  near  to  Nuremberg  in 
case  the  enemy  should  make  an  attempt  upon  the  town. 
But  Wallenstein,  as  exhausted  as  himself,  had  only 
awaited  the  retreat  of  the  Swedes  to  commence  his  own. 
Five  days  afterwards  he  broke  up  his  camp  at  Zirndorf, 
and  set  it  on  fire.  A  hundred  columns  of  smoke,  rising 
from  all  the  burning  villages  in  the  neighborhood,  an- 
nounced his  retreat,  and  showed  the  city  the  fate  it  had 
escaped.  His  march,  which  was  directed  on  Forchheim, 
was  marked  by  the  most  frightful  ravages ;  but  he  was 
too  far  advanced  to  be  overtaken  by  the  king.  The  latter 
now  divided  his  army,  which  the  exhausted  country  was 
unable  to  support,  and  leaving  one  division  to  protect 
Franconia,  with  the  other  he  prosecuted  in  person  his 
conquests  in  Bavaria. 

In  the  meantime  the  imperial  Bavarian  army  had 
marched  into  the  Bishopric  of  Bamberg,  where  the  Duke 
of  Friedland  a  second  time  mustered  his  troops.  He 
found  this  force,  which  so  lately  had  amounted  to  sixty 
thousand  men,  diminished  by  the  sword,  desertion,  and 
disease  to  about  twenty-four  thousand,  and  of  these  a 
fourth  were  Bavarians.  Thus  had  the  encampments 
before  Nuremberg  Aveakened  both  parties  more  than  two 
great  battles  would  have  done,  apparently  without  ad- 
vancing the  termination  of  the  war,  or  satisfying,  by  any 
decisive  result,  the  expectations  of  Europe.  The  king's 
conquests  in  Bavaria,  were,  it  is  true,  checked  for  a  time 
by  this  diversion  before  Nuremberg,  and  Austria  itself 
secured  against  the  danger  of  immediate  invasion  ;  but 
by  the  retreat  of  the  king  from  that  city,  he  was  again 
left  at  full  liberty  to  make  Bavaria  the  seat  of  war.  In- 
different towards  the  fate  of  that  country,  and  weary  of 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  251 

tlie  restraint  which  his  union  with  the  Elector  imposed 
upon  him,  the  Duke  of  Friedland  eagerly  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  separating  from  this  burdensome  associate,  and 
prosecuting,  with  renewed  earnestness,  his  favorite  plans. 
Still  adhering  to  his  purpose  of  detaching  Saxony  from 
its  Swedish  alliance,  he  selected  that  country  for  his  win- 
ter quarters,  hoping  by  his  destructive  presence  to  force 
the  Elector  the  more  readily  into  his  views. 

No  conjuncture  could  be  more  favorable  for  his  designs. 
The  Saxons  had  invaded  Silesia,  where,  reinforced  by 
troops  from  Brandenburg  and  Sweden,  they  had  gained 
several  advantages  over  the  Emperor's  troops.  Silesia 
would  be  saved  by  a  diversion  against  the  Elector  in  his 
own  territories,  and  the  attempt  was  the  more  easy  as 
Saxony,  left  undefended  during  the  war  in  Silesia,  lay 
open  on  every  side  to  attack.  The  pretext  of  rescuing 
from  the  enemy  an  hereditary  dominion  of  Austria  would 
silence  the  remonstrances  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  and, 
under  the  mask  of  a  patriotic  zeal  for  the  Emperor's  in- 
terests, Maximilian  might  be  sacrificed  without  much 
difficulty.  By  giving  up  the  rich  country  of  Bavaria  to 
the  Swedes  he  hoped  to  be  left  unmolested  by  them  in 
his  enterprise  against  Saxony,  while  the  increasing  cold- 
ness between  Gustavus  and  the  Saxon  Court  gave  him 
little  reason  to  apprehend  any  extraordinary  zeal  for  the 
deliverance  of  John  George.  Thus  a  second  time  aban- 
doned by  his  artful  protector,  the  Elector  separated  from 
Wallenstein  at  Bamberg,  to  protect  his  defenceless  terri- 
tory with  the  small  remains  of  his  troops,  while  the  im- 
perial army,  under  Wallenstein,  directed  its  march 
through  Beyreuth  and  Coburg  towards  the  Thuringian 
Forest. 

An  imperial  general.  Hoik,  had  previously  been  sent 
into  Vogtland  with  six  thousand  men  to  waste  this 
defenceless  province  with  fire  and  sword ;  he  was  soon 
followed  by  Gallus,  another  of  the  duke's  generals,  and 
an  equally  faithful  instrument  of  his  inhuman  orders. 
Finally,  Pappenheim,  too,  was  recalled  from  Lower  Sax- 
ony, to  reinforce  the  diminished  army  of  the  duke,  and 
to  complete  the  miseries  of  the  devoted  country.  Ruined 
churches,  villages  in  ashes,  harvests  wilfully  destroyed, 


252  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

families  plundered,  and  murdered  peasants  marked  the 
progress  of  these  barbarians,  under  whose  scourge  the 
whole  of  Thuringia,  Vogtland,  and  Meissen  lay  defence- 
less. Yet  this  was  but  the  prelude  to  greater  sufferings, 
with  which  Wallenstein  himself,  at  the  head  of  the  main 
army,  threatened  Saxony.  After  having  left  behind  him 
fearful  monuments  of  his  fury,  in  his  march  through 
Franconia  and  Tluiringia,  lie  arrived  with  his  Avhole  ai-my 
in  the  Circle  of  Leipzig,  and  compelled  the  city,  after  a 
short  resistance,  to  surrender.  His  design  was  to  push  on 
to  Dresden,  and  by  the  conquest  of  the  whole  country, 
to  prescribe  laws  to  the  Elector.  He  had  already  ap- 
proached the  Mulda,  threatening  to  overpower  the  Saxon 
army  which  had  advanced  as  far  as  Torgau  to  meet  him, 
when  the  King  of  Sweden's  arrival  at  Erfurt  gave  an 
unexpected  check  to  his  operations.  Placed  between  the 
Saxon  and  Swedish  armies,  which  were  likely  to  be  far- 
ther reinforced  by  the  troops  of  George,  Duke  of  Lunen- 
burg, from  Lower  Saxony,  he  hastily  retired  upon  Merse- 
berg,  to  form  a  junction  there  with  Count  Pappenheim, 
and  to  repel  the  further  advance  of  the  Swedes. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  witnessed  with  great  uneasi- 
ness the  arts  employed  by  Spain  and  Austria  to  detach 
his  allies  from  him.  The  more  important  his  alliance  with 
Saxony  the  more  anxiety  the  inconstant  temper  of  John 
George  caused  him.  Between  himself  and  the  Elector  a 
sincere  friendship  could  never  subsist.  A  prince  proud 
of  his  political  importance,  and  accustomed  to  consider 
himself  as  tlie  liead  of  his  party,  could  not  see  without 
annoyance  the  interference  of  a  foreign  power  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Empire ;  and  nothing  but  the  extreme 
danger  of  his  dominions  could  overcome  the  aversion 
with  whicli  he  had  long  witnessed  tlie  progress  of  this 
unwelcome  intruder.  The  increasing  influence  of  the 
king  in  Germany,  his  authority  with  the  Protestant  states, 
the  unambiguous  proofs  which  he  gave  of  his  ambitious 
views,  which  were  of  a  character  calculated  to  excite 
the  jealousies  of  all  the  states  of  the  Empire,  awakened 
in  the  Elector's  breast  a  thousand  anxieties,  which  the 
imperial  emissaries  did  not  fail  skilfully  to  keep  alive  and 
cherish.     Every  arbitrary  step  on  the  j^art  of  the  king, 


THE    THIRTY    YEAKS'    WAR.  253 

every  demand,  however  reasonable,  which  he  addressed 
to  the  princes  of  the  Empire,  was  followed  by  bitter  com- 
plaints from  the  Elector,  which  seemed  to  announce  an 
approaching  rupture.  Even  the  generals  of  the  two 
powers,  Avhenever  they  were  called  upon  to  act  in  com- 
mon, manifested  the  same  jealousy  as  divided  their 
leaders.  John  George's  natural  aversion  to  war,  and  a 
lingering  attachment  to  Austria,  favored  the  efforts  of 
Arnheim ;  who,  maintaining  a  constant  correspondence 
with  Wallenstein,  labored  incessantly  to  effect  a  private 
treaty  between  his  master  and  the  Emperor ;  and  if  his 
representations  were  long  disregarded,  still  the  event 
proved  that  they  were  not  altogether  without  effect. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  naturally  apprehensive  of  the  con- 
sequences which  the  defection  of  so  powerful  an  ally 
would  produce  on  his  future  prospects  in  Germany,  spared 
no  pains  to  avert  so  pernicious  an  event ;  and  his  remon- 
strances had  hitherto  had  some  effect  upon  the  Elector. 
But  the  formidable  power  with  which  the  Emperor  sec- 
onded his  seductive  proposals,  and  the  miseries  which,  in 
the  case  of  hesitation,  he  threatened  to  accumulate  upon 
Saxony,  might  at  length  overcome  the  resolution  of  the 
Elector  should  he  be  left  exposed  to  the  vengeance  of  his 
enemies ;  while  an  indifference  to  the  fate  of  so  powerful 
a  confederate  would  irreparably  destroy  the  confidence  of 
the  other  allies  in  their  protector.  This  consideration 
induced  the  king  a  second  time  to  yield  to  the  pressing 
entreaties  of  the  Elector,  and  to  sacrifice  his  own  brilliant 
prospects  to  the  safety  of  this  ally.  He  had  already  re- 
solved upon  a  second  attack  on  Ingoldstadt;  and  the 
weakness  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  gave  him  hopes  of 
soon  forcing  this  exhaiisted  enemy  to  accede  to  a  neu- 
trality. An  insurrection  of  the  peasantry  in  Upper 
Austria  opened  to  him  a  passage  into  that  country,  and 
the  capital  might  be  in  his  possession  before  Wallenstein 
could  have  time  to  advance  to  its  defence.  All  these 
views  he  now  gave  up  for  the  sake  of  an  ally  who,  neither 
by  his  services  nor  his  fidelity,  was  worthy  of  the  sacrifice ; 
who,  on  the  pressing  occasions  of  common  good,  had 
steadily  adhered  to  his  own  selfish  projects ;  and  who  was 
important,  not  for  the  services  he  was  expected  to  render, 


254  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

but  merely  for  the  injuries  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  in- 
flict. Is  it  possible,  then,  to  refrain  from  indignation, 
when  we  know  that  in  this  expedition,  undertaken  for 
the  benefit  of  such  an  ally,  the  great  king  was  destined  to 
terminate  his  career? 

Rapidly  assembling  his  troops  in  Franconia,  he  followed 
the  route  of  Wallenstein  through  Thuringia.  Duke  Ber- 
nard  of  Weimar,  who  had  been  despatched  to  act  agamst 
Pappenheim,  joined  the  king  at  Armstadt,  who  now  saw 
himself  at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand  veterans.  At 
Erfurt  he  took  leave  of  his  queen,  who  was  not  to  behold 
him,  save  in  his  coffin,  at  Weissenfels.  Their  anxious 
adieus  seemed  to  forbode  an  eternal  separation. 

He  reached  Naumburg  on  the  1st  November,  1632, 
before  the  corps,  which  the  Duke  of  Friedland  had  de- 
spatched for  that  purpose,  could  make  itself  master  of 
that  place.  The  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  country 
flocked  in  crowds  to  look  upon  the  hero,  the  avenger,  the 
great  king,  who,  a  year  before,  had  first  appeared  in  that 
quarter  like  a  guardian  angel.  Shouts  of  joy  everywhere 
attended  his  progress ;  the  people  knelt  before  him  and 
struggled  for  the  honor  of  touching  the  sheath  of  his 
sword  or  the  hem  of  his  garment.  The  modest  hero 
disliked  this  innocent  tribute  which  a  sincerely  grateful 
and  admiring  multitude  paid  him.  "  Is  it  not,"  said  he, 
"  as  if  this  people  would  make  a  God  of  me  ?  Our  affairs 
prosper,  indeed;  but  I  fear  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  will 
punish  me  for  this  presumption,  and  soon  enough  reveal 
to  this  deluded  multitude  my  human  weakness  and  mor- 
tality!" How  amiable  does  Gustavus  appear  before  us 
at  this  moment,  when  about  to  leave  us  forever !  Even 
in  the  plenitude  of  success  he  honors  an  avenging  Ne- 
mesis, declines  that  homage  which  is  due  only  to  the  Im- 
mortal, and  strengthens  his  title  to  our  tears  the  nearer 
the  moment  appi'oaches  that  is  to  call  them  forth ! 

In  the  meantime  the  Duke  of  Friedland  had  deter- 
mined to  advance  to  meet  the  king  as  far  as  Weissenfels, 
and,  even  at  the  hazard  of  a  battle,  to  secure  his  winter- 
quarters  in  Saxony.  His  inactivity  before  Nuremberg 
had  occasioned  a  suspicion  that  he  was  unwilling  to 
measure  his  powers  with  those  of  the  Hero  of  the  North, 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAE.  255 

and  his  hard-earned  reputation  would  be  at  stake  if  a 
second  time  he  should  decline  a  battle.  His  present 
superiority  in  numbers,  though  much  less  than  what  it 
was  at  the  beginning  of  the  siege  of  Nuremberg,  was  still 
enough  to  give  him  hopes  of  victory  if  he  could  compel 
the  king  to  give  battle  before  his  junction  with  the 
Saxons.  But  his  present  reliance  was  not  so  much  in 
his  numerical  superiority  as  in  the  predictions  of  his 
astrologer,  Seni,  who  had  read  in  the  stars  that  the  good 
fortune  of  the  Swedish  monarch  would  decline  in  the 
month  of  November.  Besides,  between  Naumburg  and 
Weissenfels  there  was  also  a  range  of  narrow  defiles, 
formed  by  a  long  mountainous  ridge  and  the  river  Saal, 
which  ran  at  their  foot,  along  which  the  Swedes  could 
not  advance  without  difficulty,  and  which  might  with  the 
assistance  of  a  few  troops  be  rendered  almost  impassable. 
If  attacked  there  the  king  would  have  no  choice  but 
either  to  penetrate  with  great  danger  through  the  defiles, 
or  commence  a  laborious  retreat  through  Thuringia,  and 
to  expose  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  a  march  throug-h 
a  desert  country  deficient  in  every  necessary  for  their 
support.  But  the  rapidity  with  which  Gustavus  Adolphus 
had  taken  possession  of  Naumburg  disappointed  this 
plan,  and  it  was  now  Wallenstein  himself  who  awaited 
the  attack. 

But  in  this  expectation  he  was  disappointed  ;  for  the 
king,  instead  of  advancing  to  meet  him  at  Weissenfels, 
made  preparations  for  intrenching  himself  near  Naum- 
burg, with  the  intention  of  awaiting  there  the  reinforce- 
ments which  the  Duke  of  Lunenburg  was  bringing  up. 
Undecided  whether  to  advance  against  the  king  through 
the  narrow  passes  between  Weissenfels  and  Naumburg, 
or  to  remain  inactive  in  his  camp,  he  called  a  council  of 
war  in  order  to  have  the  opinion  of  his  most  experienced 
generals.  None  of  these  thought  it  prudent  to  attack  the 
king  in  his  advantageous  position.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  preparations  which  the  latter  made  to  fortify  his 
camp  plainly  showed  that  it  was  not  his  intention  soon 
to  abandon  it.  But  the  approach  of  winter  rendered  it 
impossible  to  prolong  the  campaign,  and  by  a  continued 
encampment  to  exhaust  the  strength  of  the  army,  already 


256  THE   THIRTY  TEARS'   WAR. 

SO  much  in  need  of  repose.  All  voices  were  in  favor  of 
immediately  terminating  the  campaign ;  and  the  more 
so  as  the  important  city  of  Cologne  upon  the  Rhine  was 
threatened  by  the  Dutch,  while  the  progress  of  the  enemy 
in  Westphalia  and  the  Lower  llhine  called  for  effective 
reinforcements  in  that  quarter.  Wallenstein  yielded  to 
the  weight  of  these  arguments,  and  almost  convinced  that 
at  this  season  he  had  no  reason  to  appi-ehend  an  attack 
from  the  king,  he  put  his  troops  into  winter  quarters,  but 
so  that,  if  necessary,  they  might  be  rapidly  assembled. 
Count  Pappenheim  w^as  despatched,  with  great  part  of  the 
army,  to  the  assistance  of  Cologne,  with  orders  to  take 
I^ossession  on  his  march  of  the  fortress  of  Moritzburg,  in 
the  territory  of  Halle.  Different  corps  took  up  their 
winter  quarters  in  the  neighboring  towns,  to  watch  on  all 
sides  the  motions  of  the  enemy.  Count  Colloredo 
guarded  the  castle  of  Weissenfels,  and  Wallenstein  him- 
self encamped  with  the  remainder  not  far  from  Merse- 
burg,  between  Flotzgaben  and  the  Saal,  from  whence  he 
purposed  to  march  to  Leipzig,  and  to  cut  off  the  com- 
munication between  the  Saxons  and  the  Swedish  army. 

Scarcely  had  Gustavus  Adolphus  been  informed  of 
Pappenheim's  departure  when,  suddenly  breaking  up  his 
camp  at  Naumburg,  he  hastened  with  his  whole  force  to 
attack  the  enemy,  now  weakened  to  one-half.  He  ad- 
vanced by  rapid  marches  towards  Weissenfels,  from 
whence  the  news  of  his  arrival  quickly  reached  the  enemy, 
and  greatly  astonished  the  Duke  of  Friedland.  But  a 
speedy  resolution  was  now  necessary ;  and  the  measures 
of  Wallenstein  were  soon  taken.  Though  he  had  little 
more  than  twelve  thousand  men  to  oppose  to  the  twenty 
thousand  of  the  enemy,  he  might  hope  to  maintain  his 
ground  until  the  return  of  Pajipenheim,  who  could  not 
have  advanced  farther  than  Halle,  five  miles  distant. 
Messengers  were  hastily  despatched  to  recall  liim,  while 
Wallenstein  moved  forward  into  the  wide  plain  between 
the  Canal  and  Lutzen,  where  he  awaited  the  king  in  full 
order  of  battle,  and  by  this  position  cut  off  his  commu- 
nication with  Leipzig  and  the  Saxon  auxiliaries. 

Three  cannon  shots,  fired  by  Count  Colloredo  from  the 
Castle  of  Weissenfels,  announced  the  king's  approach ; 


THE   THIRTY  YEARS'    WAR.  257 

and  at  this  concerted  signal  the  light  troops  of  the  Duke 
of  Friedland,  under  the  command  of  the  Croatian  Gen- 
eral Isolani,  moved  forward  to  possess  themselves  of 
the  villages  lying  upon  the  Rippach.  Their  weak 
resistance  did  not  impede  the  advance  of  the  enemy, 
who  crossed  the  Rippach,  near  the  village  of  that  name, 
and  formed  in  line  below  Lutzen,  opposite  the  Imperialists. 
The  high  road  which  goes  from  Weissenfels  to  Leipzig  is 
intersected  between  Lutzen  and  Markranstadt  by  the 
canal  which  extends  from  Zeitz  to  Merseburg,  and  unites 
the  Elster  with  the  Saal.  On  this  canal  rested  the  left 
wing  of  the  Imperialists  and  the  right  of  the  King  of 
Sweden  ;  but  so  that  the  cavalry  of  both  extended  them- 
selves along  the  opposite  side.  To  the  northward,  behind 
Lutzen,  was  Wallenstein's  right  wing,  and  to  the  south 
of  that  town  was  posted  the  left  wing  of  the  Swedes; 
both  armies  fronted  the  high  road,  which  ran  between 
them  and  divided  their  order  of  battle ;  but  the  evening 
before  the  battle  Wallenstein,  to  the  great  disadvantage 
of  his  opponent,  had  possessed  himself  of  this  highway, 
deepened  the  trenches  which  ran  along  its  sides,  and 
planted  them  with  musketeers  so  as  to  make  the  crossing 
of  it  both  difficult  and  dangerous.  Behind  these,  again, 
was  erected  a  battery  of  seven  large  pieces  of  cannon,  to 
support  the  fire  from  the  trenches ;  and  at  the  windmills, 
close  behind  Lutzen,  fourteen  smaller  field-pieces  were 
ranged  on  an  eminence,  from  which  they  could  sweep  the 
greater  part  of  the  plain.  The  infantry,  divided  into  no 
more  than  five  unwieldy  brigades,  was  drawn  up  at  the 
distance  of  three  hundred  paces  from  the  road,  and  the 
cavalry  covered  the  flanks.  All  the  baggage  was  sent 
to  Leipzig,  that  it  might  not  impede  the  movements  of 
the  army ;  and  the  ammunition-wagons  alone  remained, 
which  were  placed  in  rear  of  the  line.  To  conceal  the 
weakness  of  the  Imperialists  all  the  camp-followers  and 
sutlers  were  mounted,  and  posted  on  the  left  wing,  but 
only  until  Pappenlieim's  troops  arrived.  These  arrange- 
ments were  made  during  tlie  darkness  of  the  night ;  and 
when  the  morning  dawned  all  was  ready  for  the  reception 
of  the  enemy. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  Gustavus  Adolphus 


258  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

appeared  on  the  opposite  plain,  and  formed  his  troops  in 
the  order  of  attack.  His  disposition  was  the  same  as 
that  which  had  been  so  successful  the  year  before  at  Leip- 
zig. Small  squadrons  of  horse  were  interspersed  among 
the  divisions  of  the  infantry,  and  troops  of  musketeers 
placed  here  and  there  among  the  cavalry.  The  army 
was  arranged  in  two  lines,  the  canal  on  the  right  and  in 
its  rear,  the  high  road  in  front,  and  the  town  on  the  left. 
In  the  centre  the  infantry  was  formed,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Count  Brahe ;  the  cavalry  on  the  wings ;  the 
artillery  in  front.  To  the  German  hero,  Bernard,  Duke 
of  Weimar,  was  entrusted  the  command  of  the  German 
cavalry  of  the  left  wing ;  while  on  the  right  the  king 
led  on  the  Swedes  in  person,  in  order  to  excite  the  emula- 
tion of  the  two  nations  to  a  noble  competition.  The 
second  line  was  formed  in  the  same  manner ;  and  behind 
these  was  placed  the  reserve,  commanded  by  Henderson, 
a  Scotchman. 

In  this  position  they  awaited  the  eventful  dawn  of 
morning  to  begin  a  contest,  which  long  delay,  rather 
than  the  probability  of  decisive  consequences,  and  the 
picked  body,  rather  than  the  number  of  combatants,  was 
to  render  so  terrible  and  remarkable.  The  strained 
expectation  of  Europe,  so  disappointed  before  Nurem- 
berg, was  now  to  be  gratified  on  the  plains  of  Lutzen. 
During  the  whole  course  of  the  war  two  such  generals, 
so  equally  matched  in  renown  and  ability,  had  not  before 
been  pitted  against  each  other.  Never  as  yet  had  daring 
been  cooled  by  so  awful  a  hazard,  or  hope  animated  by  so 
glorious  a  prize.  Europe  was  next  day  to  learn  who  was  her 
greatest  general  —  to-morrow,  the  leader,  who  had  hitherto 
been  invincil>le,  must  acknowledge  a  victor.  This  morn- 
ing was  to  place  it  beyond  a  doubt  Avhether  the  victories 
of  Gustavus  at  Leipzig  and  on  the  Lech  were  owing  to 
his  own  military  genius  or  to  the  incompetency  of  his 
opponent;  whether  the  services  of  Wallenstein  were  to 
vindicate  the  Emperor's  choice,  and  justify  the  high  price 
at  which  they  had  been  purchased.  The  victory  was  as 
yet  doubtful,  but  certain  were  the  labor  and  the  bloodshed 
by  which  it  must  be  earned.  Every  private  in  both 
armies  felt  a  jealous  share  in  tlieir  leader's  reputation, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  259 

and  under  every  corslet  beat  tlie  same  emotions  that 
inflamed  the  bosoms  of  the  generals.  Each  army  knew 
the  enemy  to  which  it  was  to  be  opposed  ;  and  the  anxiety 
which  each  in  vain  attempted  to  repress  was  a  convincing 
proof  of  their  oj^ponent's  strength. 

At  last  the  fatal  morning  dawned ;  but  an  impenetra- 
ble fog,  which  spread  over  the  plain,  delayed  the  attack 
till  noon.  Kneeling  in  front  of  his  lines  the  king  offered 
up  his  devotions ;  and  the  whole  army  at  the  same  mo- 
ment dropping  on  their  knees  burst  into  a  moving  hymn, 
accompanied  by  the  military  music.  The  king  then 
mounted  his  horse,  and  clad  only  in  a  leathern  doublet 
and  surtout  (for  a  wound  he  had  formerly  received  pre- 
vented his  wearing  armor),  he  rode  along  the  ranks  to 
animate  the  courage  of  his  troops  with  a  joyful  confi- 
dence, Avhich,  however,  the  forboding  presentment  of  his 
own  bosom  contradicted.  "God  with  us!  "  was  the  war- 
cry  of  the  Swedes;  "Jesus  Maria!"  that  of  the  Imperial- 
ists. AboiTt  eleven  the  fog  began  to  disjDerse  and  the 
enemy  became  visible.  At  the  same  moment  Lutzen 
was  seen  in  flames,  having  been  set  on  fire  by  command 
of  the  duke  to  prevent  his  being  outflanked  on  that  side. 
The  charge  was  now  sounded  ;  the  cavalry  rushed  upon 
the  enemy,  and  the  infantry  advanced  against  the 
trenches. 

Received  by  a  tremendous  fire  of  musketry  and  heavy 
artillery,  these  intrepid  battalions  maintained  the  attack 
with  undaunted  courage  till  the  enemy's  musketeers 
abandoned  their  jiosts,  the  trenches  were  passed,  the 
battery  carried  and  turned  against  the  enemy.  They 
pressed  forward  with  irresistible  impetuosity;  the  first  of 
the  five  imperial  brigades  was  immediately  routed,  the 
second  soon  after,  and  the  third  put  to  flight.  But  here 
the  genius  of  Wallenstein  opposed  itself  to  their  pro- 
gress. With  the  rapidity  of  lightning  he  was  on  the  spot 
to  rally  his  discomfited  troops ;  and  his  powerful  word 
was  itself  sufficient  to  stop  the  flight  of  the  fugitives. 
Supported  by  three  regiments  of  cavalry  the  vanquished 
brigades,  forming  anew,  faced  the  enemy  and  pressed 
vigorously  into  the  broken  ranks  of  the  Swedes.  A 
murderous  conflict  ensued.     The  nearness  of  the  enemy 


260  THE    THIETy   YEARS'   WAR. 

left  no  room  for  firearms,  the  fury  of  the  attack  no  time 
for  loading ;  man  was  matched  to  man,  the  useless  musket 
exchanged  for  the  sword  and  pike,  and  science  gave  way 
to  desperation.  Overpowered  by  numbers  tlie  wearied 
Swedes  at  last  retire  beyond  the  trenches,  and  the  cap- 
tured battery  is  again  lost  by  the  retreat.  A  thousand 
mangled  bodies  ah-eady  strewed  the  plain,  and  as  yet  not 
a  single  step  of  ground  had  been  won. 

In  the  meantime  the  king's  right  wing,  led  by  himself, 
had  fallen  upon  the  enemy's  left.  The  first  impetuous 
shock  of  the  heavy  Finland  cuirassiers  dispersed  the 
lightly-mounted  Poles  and  Croats  who  were  posted  here, 
and  their  disorderly  flight  spread  terror  and  confusion 
among  the  rest  of  the  cavalry.  At  this  moment  notice 
was  brought  to  the  king  that  his  infantry  were  retreating 
over  the  trenches,  and  also  that  his  left  wing,  exposed  to 
a  severe  fire  from  the  enemy's  cannon  posted  at  the  wind- 
mills, was  beginning  to  give  way.  With  rapid  decision 
he  committed  to  General  Horn  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy's 
left,  while  he  flew,  at  the  head  of  the  regiment  of  Stein- 
bock,  to  repair  the  disorder  of  his  right  wing.  His  noble 
charger  bore  him  with  the  velocity  of  lightning  across 
the  trenches,  but  the  squadrons  that  followed  could  not 
come  on  with  the  same  speed,  and  only  a  few  horsemen, 
among  whom  was  Francis  Albert,  Duke  of  Saxe  Lauen- 
burg,  were  able  to  keep  up  with  the  king.  He  rode 
directly  to  the  place  where  his  infantry  were  most  closely 
pi'essed,  and  while  he  was  reconnoitring  the  enemy's  line 
for  an  exposed  point  of  attack  the  shortness  of  his  sight 
unfortunately  led  him  too  close  to  their  ranks.  An  im- 
perial Gefreyter,*  remarking  that  every  one  respectfully 
made  way  for  him  as  he  rode  along,  immediately  ordered 
a  musketeer  to  take  aim  at  him.  "  Fire  at  him  yonder," 
said  he,  "that  must  be  a  man  of  consequence."  The 
soldier  fired,  and  the  king's  left  arm  was  shattered.  At 
that  moment  his  squadrons  came  hurrying  up,  and  a  con- 
fused cry  of  "  the  king  bleeds  !  the  king  is  shot !  "  spread 
terror  and  consternation  through  all  the  ranks.  "  It  is 
nothing  —  follow  me,"  cried  the  king,  collecting  his  whole 

»  Grefreyter,  a  person  exempt  from  watching  duty,  nearly  corresponding  to 
the  corporal. 


vrinik     iTvi 


Los  Afigpfp'?  Cal. 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  261 

strength ;  but  overcome  by  pain,  and  nearly  fainting,  he 
requested  the  Duke  of  Lauenburg,  in  French,  to  lead  him 
unobserved  out  of  the  tumult.  While  the  duke  proceeded 
towards  the  right  wing  with  the  king,  making  a  long 
circuit  to  keep  this  discouraging  sight  from  the  disordered 
infantiy,  his  majesty  received  a  second  shot  through  the 
back,  which  deprived  him  of  his  remaining  strength. 
"  Brother,"  said  he,  with  a  dying  voice,  "  I  have  enough ! 
look  only  to  your  own  life."  At  the  same  moment  he 
fell  from  his  horse  pierced  by  several  more  shots,  and 
abandoned  by  all  his  attendants  he  breathed  his  last 
amidst  the  plundering  hands  of  the  Croats.  His  charger, 
flying  without  its  rider,  and  covered  with  blood,  soon 
made  known  to  the  Swedish  cavalry  the  fall  of  their 
king.  They  rushed  madly  forward  to  rescue  his  sacred 
remains  from  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  A  murderous 
conflict  ensued  over  the  body  till  his  mangled  remains 
were  buried  beneath  a  heap  of  slain. 

The  mournful  tidings  soon  ran  through  the  Swedish 
army ;  but  instead  of  destroying  the  courage  of  these 
brave  troops,  it  but  excited  it  into  a  new,  a  wild,  and 
consuming  flame.  Life  had  lessened  in  value  now  that 
the  most  sacred  life  of  all  was  gone ;  death  had  no  terrors 
for  the  lowly  since  the  anointed  head  was  not  spared. 
With  the  fury  of  lions  the  Upland,  Smaland,  Finland, 
East  and  West  Gothland  regiments  rushed  a  second  time 
upon  the  left  wing  of  the  enemy,  which,  already  making 
but  feeble  resistance  to  General  Horn,  was  now  entirely 
beaten  from  the  field.  Bernard,  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar, 
gave  to  the  bereaved  Swedes  a  noble  leader  in  his  own 
person ;  and  the  spirit  of  Gustavus  led  his  victorious 
squadrons  anew.  The  left  wing  quickly  formed  again 
and  vigorously  pressed  the  right  of  the  Imperialists. 
The  artillery  at  the  Avindmills,  which  had  maintained  so 
murderous  a  fire  upon  the  Swedes,  was  captured  and 
turned  against  the  enemy.  The  centre  also  of  the 
Swedish  infantry,  commanded  by  the  duke  and  Knyp- 
hausen,  advanced  a  second  time  against  the  trenches, 
which  they  successfully  passed,  and  retook  the  battery  of 
seven  cannons.  The  attack  was  now  renewed  with  re- 
doubled fury  upon  the  heavy  battalions  of  the  enemy's 


262  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

centre ;  their  resistance  became  gradually  less,  and  chance 
consjnred  with  Swedish  valor  to  comj^lete  the  defeat. 
The  imperial  powder-wagons  took  fire,  and,  with  a  tre- 
mendous explosion,  grenades  and  bombs  filled  the  air. 
The  enemy,  now  in  confusion,  thought  they  were  attacked 
in  the  rear,  while  the  Swedish  brigades  pressed  them  in 
front.  Their  courage  began  to  fail  them.  Their  left 
wing  was  already  beaten,  their  right  wavering,  and  their 
artillery  in  the  enemy's  hands.  The  battle  seemed  to  be 
almost  decided ;  another  moment  would  decide  the  fate 
of  the  day,  when  Pappenheim  appeared  on  the  field  with 
his  cuirassiers  and  dragoons ;  all  the  advantages  already 
gained  were  lost,  and  the  battle  was  to  be  fought  anew. 

The  order  which  recalled  that  general  to  Lutzen  had 
reached  him  in  Halle,  while  his  troops  were  still  plunder- 
ing the  town.  It  was  impossible  to  collect  the  scattered 
infantry  with  that  rapidity  which  the  urgency  of  the 
order  and  Pappenheim's  impatience  required.  Without 
waiting  for  it,  therefore,  he  ordered  eight  regiments  of 
cavalry  to  mount,  and  at  their  head  he  galloped  at  full 
speed  for  Lutzen  to  share  in  the  battle.  He  arrived  in 
time  to  witness  the  flight  of  the  imperial  right  wing, 
which  Gustavus  Horn  was  driving  from  the  field,  and  to 
be  at  first  involved  in  their  rout.  But  with  rapid  pres- 
ence of  mind  he  rallied  the  flying  troops  and  led  them 
once  more  against  the  enemy.  Carried  away  by  his  wild 
bravery,  and  impatient  to  encounter  the  king,  who  he 
supposed  was  at  the  head  of  this  wing,  he  burst  furiously 
upon  the  Swedish  ranks,  which,  exhausted  by  victory 
and  inferior  in  numbers,  were,  after  a  noble  resistance, 
overpowered  by  this  fresh  body  of  enemies.  Pappen- 
heim's imexpected  appearance  revived  the  drooping 
courage  of  the  Imperialists,  and  the  Duke  of  Friedland 
quickly  availed  himself  of  the  favorable  moment  to  re- 
form his  line.  The  closely  serried  battalion  of  the 
Swedes  were,  after  a  tremendous  conflict,  again  driven 
across  the  trenches,  and  tht  battery,  which  had  been 
twice  lost,  again  rescued  from  their  hands.  The  whole 
yellow  regiment,  the  finest  of  all  that  distingi;shed 
themselves  in  this  dreadful  day,  lay  dead  on  the  field, 
covering  the  ground  almost  in  the  same  excellent  order 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  263 

which,  when  alive,  they  maintained  with  such  unyielding 
courage.  The  same  fate  befel  another  regiment  of  Blues 
which  Count  Piccolomini  attacked  with  the  imperial 
cavalry,  and  cut  down  after  a  desperate  contest.  Seven 
times  did  this  intrepid  general  renew  the  attack ;  seven 
horses  were  shot  under  him,  and  he  himself  was  pierced 
with  six  musket  balls ;  yet  he  would  not  leave  the  field 
until  he  was  carried  along  in  the  general  rout  of  the 
whole  army.  Wallenstein  himself  was  seen  riding 
through  his  ranks  with  cool  intrejDidity,  amidst  a  shower 
of  balls,  assisting  the  distressed,  encouraging  the  valiant 
with  praise,  and  the  wavering  by  his  fearful  glance. 
Around  and  close  by  him  his  men  were  falling  thick,  and 
his  own  mantle  was  perforated  by  several  shots.  But 
avenging  destiny  this  day  protected  that  breast  for  which 
another  weapon  was  reserved  ;  on  the  same  field  where 
the  noble  Gustavus  expired  Wallenstein  was  not  allowed 
to  terminate  his  guilty  career. 

Less  fortunate  was  Pappenheim,  the  Telamon  of  the 
army,  the  bravest  soldier  of  Austria  and  the  church.  An 
ardent  desire  to  encounter  the  king  in  person  carried 
this  daring  leader  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  where  he 
thought  his  noble  opponent  was  most  surely  to  be  met. 
Gustavus  had  also  expressed  a  wish  to  meet  his  brave 
antagonist,  but  these  hostile  wishes  remained  ungratified ; 
death  first  brought  together  these  two  great  heroes. 
Two  musket-balls  pierced  the  breast  of  Pappenheim  ;  and 
his  men  forcibly  carried  him  from  the  field.  While  they 
were  conveying  him  to  the  rear  a  murmur  reached  him 
that  he  whom  he  had  sought  lay  dead  upon  the  plain. 
When  the  truth  of  the  report  was  confirmed  to  him,  his 
look  became  brighter,  his  dying  eye  sparkled  with  a  last 
gleam  of  joy.  "Tell  the  Duke  of  Friedland,"  said  he, 
"  that  I  lie  without  hope  of  life,  but  that  I  die  happy, 
since  I  know  that  the  implacable  enemy  of  my  religion 
has  fallen  on  the  some  day." 

With  Pappenheim  the  good  fortune  of  the  Imperialists 
departed.  The  cavalry  of  the  left  wing,  already  beaten, 
and  only  rallied  by  his  exertions,  no  sooner  missed  their 
victorious  leader  than  they  gave  up  everything  for  lost, 
and  abandoned  the  field  of  "battle  in  spiritless  despair. 


264  THE   THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

The  right  wing  fell  into  the  same  confusion,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  regiments,  which  the  bravery  of  their 
colonels,  Gotz,  Terzky,  Colloredo,  and  Piccoloraini,  com- 
pelled to  keep  their  ground.  The  Swedish  infantry,  with 
prompt  determination,  profited  by  the  enemy's  confusion. 
To  fill  up  the  gaps  which  death  had  made  in  the  front 
line  they  formed  both  lines  into  one,  and  with  it  made 
the  final  and  decisive  charge.  A  third  time  they  crossed 
the  trenches,  and  a  third  time  they  captured  the  battery. 
The  sun  was  setting  when  the  two  lines  closed.  The 
strife  grew  hotter  as  it  drew  to  an  end ;  the  last  efforts 
of  strength  were  mutually  exerted,  and  skill  and  courage 
did  their  utmost  to  repair  in  these  precious  moments  the 
fortune  of  the  day.  It  was  in  vain ;  despair  endows 
every  one  with  superhuman  strength  ;  no  one  can  conquer, 
no  one  will  give  way.  The  art  of  war  seemed  to  exhaust 
its  powers  on  one  side  only  to  unfold  some  new  and 
untried  masterpiece  of  skill  on  the  other.  Night  and 
darkness  at  last  put  an  end  to  the  light  before  the  fury 
of  the  combatants  was  exhausted ;  and  the  contest  only 
ceased  when  no  one  could  any  longer  find  an  antagonist. 
Both  armies  separated  as  if  by  tacit  agreement ;  tlie 
trumpets  sounded  and  each  party,  claiming  the  victory, 
quitted  the  field. 

The  artillery  on  both  sides,  as  the  horses  could  not  be 
found,  remained  all  night  upon  the  field,  at  once  the 
reward  and  the  evidence  of  victory  to  him  who  should 
hold  it.  Wallenstein,  in  his  haste  to  leave  Leipzig  and 
Saxony,  forgot  to  remove  his  part.  Not  long  after  the 
battle  was  ended  Pappenheim's  infantry,  Avho  had  been 
unable  to  follow  the  rapid  movements  of  their  general, 
and  who  amounted  to  six  regiments,  marched  on  the  field, 
but  the  work  was  done.  A  few  liours  earlier  so  consid- 
erable a  reinforcement  would  perhaps  have  decided  the 
day  in  favor  of  the  Imperialists  ;  and,  even  now,  by  re- 
maining on  the  field,  tliey  might  Iiave  saved  the  duke's 
artillery,  and  made  a  prize  of  that  of  the  Swedes.  But 
they  had  received  no  orders  to  act ;  and  uncertain  as  to 
the  issue  of  the  battle,  they  retired  to  Leipzig,  where 
they  hoped  to  join  the  main  body. 

The  Duke  of  Friedland  had  retreated  thither,  and  was 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  265 

followed  on  the  morrow  by  the  scattered  remains  of  his 
army,  without  artillery,  without  colors,  and  almost  with- 
out arms.  The  Duke  of  Weimar,  it  appears,  after  the 
toils  of  this  bloody  day,  allowed  the  Swedish  army  some 
repose,  between  Lutzen  and  Weissenfels,  near  enough  to 
the  field  of  battle  to  oppose  any  attempt  the  enemy 
might  make  to  recover  it.  Of  the  two  armies  more  than 
nine  thousand  men  lay  dead  ;  a  still  greater  number  were 
wounded,  and  among  the  Imperialists  scarcely  a  man 
escaped  from  the  field  uninjured.  The  entire  plain  from 
Lutzen  to  the  Canal  was  strewed  with  the  wounded,  the 
dying,  and  the  dead.  Many  of  the  principal  nobility  had 
fallen  on  both  sides.  Even  the  Abbot  of  Fulda,  who  had 
mingled  in  the  combat  as  a  spectator,  paid  for  his  curiosity 
and  his  ill-timed  zeal  Avith  his  life.  History  says  nothing 
of  prisoners ;  a  further  proof  of  the  animosity  of  the 
combatants,  who  neither  gave  nor  took  quarter. 

Pappenheim  died  the  next  day  of  his  wounds  at  Leipzig; 
an  irreparable  loss  to  the  imperial  army,  which  this  brave 
warrior  had  so  often  led  on  to  victory.  The  battle  of 
Prague,  where,  together  with  Wallenstein,  he  was  pres- 
ent as  colonel,  was  the  beginning  of  his  heroic  career. 
Dangerously  wounded,  with  a  few  troops  he  made  an 
impetuous  attack  on  a  regiment  of  the  enemy,  and  lay  for 
several  hours  mixed  with  the  dead  upon  the  field  beneath 
the  weight  of  his  horse,  till  he  was  discovered  by  some 
of  his  own  men  in  plundering.  With  a  small  force  he 
defeated,  in  three  different  engagements,  the  rebels  in 
Upper  Austria,  though  forty  thousand  strong.  At 
the  battle  of  Leipzig  he  for  a  long  time  delayed  the 
defeat  of  Tilly  by  his  bravery,  and  led  the  arms  of  the 
Emperor  on  the  Elbe  and  the  Weser  to  victory.  The 
wild,  impetuous  fire  of  his  temperament,  which  no  danger, 
however  apparent,  could  cool,  or  impossibilities  check, 
made  him  the  most  powerful  arm  of  the  imperial  force, 
but  unfitted  him  for  acting  at  its  head.  The  battle  of 
Leipzig,  if  Tilly  may  be  believed,  was  lost  through  his 
rash  ardor.  At  the  destruction  of  Magdeburg  his  hands 
were  deeply  steeped  in  blood  ;  war  rendered  savage  and 
ferocious  his  disi:)Osition,  which  had  been  cultivated  by 
youthful  studies  and  various  travels.      On  his  forehead 


266  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

two  red  streaks,  like  sworcls,  were  perceptible,  with  which 
nature  had  marked  him  at  his  very  birth.  Even  in  his 
later  years  these  became  visible  as  often  as  his  blood  was 
stirred  by  passion;  and  superstition  easily  persuaded 
itself  that  the  future  destiny  of  the  man  was  thus  im- 
pressed upon  the  forehead  of  the  child.  As  a  faithful 
servant  of  the  House  of  Austria  he  had  the  strongest 
claims  on  the  gratitude  of  both  its  lines,  but  he  did  not 
survive  to  enjoy  the  most  brilliant  proof  of  their  regard. 
A  messenger  was  already  on  his  way  from  Madrid,  bear- 
ing to  him  the  order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  when  death 
overtook  him  at  Leipzig. 

Though  Te  Deum,  in  all  Spanish  and  Austrian  lands, 
was  sung  in  honor  of  a  victory,  Wallenstein  himself,  by 
the  haste  with  which  he  quitted  Leipzig,  and  soon  after 
all  Saxony,  and  by  renouncing  his  original  design  of 
fixing  there  his  winter  quarters,  openly  confessed  his 
defeat.  It  is  true  he  made  one  moi'e  feeble  attempt  to 
dispute,  even  in  his  flight,  the  honor  of  victory,  by  send- 
ing out  his  Croats  next  morning  to  the  field;  but  the 
sight  of  the  Swedish  array  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle 
immediately  dispersed  these  flying  bands,  and  Duke  Ber- 
nard, by  keeping  possession  of  the  field,  and  soon  after  by 
the  capture  of  Leipzig,  maintained  indisputably  his  claim 
to  the  title  of  victor. 

But  it  was  a  dear  conquest,  a  dearer  triumph !  It  was 
not  till  the  fury  of  the  conquest  was  over  that  the  full 
weight  of  the  loss  sustained  was  felt,  and  the  shout  of 
triumph  died  away  into  a  silent  gloom  of  despair.  He 
who  had  led  them  to  the  charge  returned  not  with  them; 
there  he  lay  upon  the  field  which  he  had  won,  mingled 
with  the  dead  bodies  of  the  common  crowd.  After  a 
long  and  almost  fruitless  search,  the  corpse  of  the  king 
was  discovered,  not  far  from  the  great  stone,  which,  for  a 
hundred  years  before  had  stood  between  Lirtzen  and  the 
Canal,  and  which,  from  the  memorable  disaster  of  that 
day,  still  bears  the  name  of  the  Stone  of  the  Swede. 
Covered  with  blood  and  wounds  so  as  scarcely  to  be 
recognized,  trampled  beneath  the  horses'  hoofs,  stripped 
by  the  rude  hands  of  plunderers  of  his  ornaments  and 
clothes,  his  body  was  drawn  from  beneath  a  heap  of  dead, 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  267 

conveyed  to  Weissenfels,  and  there  delivered  up  to  the 
lamentations  of  his  soldiers  and  the  last  embraces  of  his 
queen.  The  first  tribute  had  been  paid  to  revenge,  and 
blood  had  atoned  for  the  blood  of  the  monarch ;  but  now 
affection  assumes  its  rights,  and  tears  of  grief  must  flow 
for  the  man.  The  universal  sorrow  absorbs  all  individual 
woes.  The  generals,  still  stupefied  by  the  unexpected 
blow,  stood  speechless  and  motionless  around  his  bier, 
and  no  one  trusted  himself  enough  to  contemplate  the  full 
extent  of  their  loss. 

The  Emperor,  we  are  told  by  Khevenhuller,  showed 
symptoms  of  deep  and  apparently  sincere  feeling  at  the 
sight  of  the  king's  doublet  stained  with  blood,  which  had 
been  stripped  from  him  during  the  battle,  and  carried  to 
Vienna.  "  Willingly,"  said  he,  "  Avould  I  have  granted 
to  the  unfortunate  prince  a  longer  life,  and  a  safe  return 
to  his  kingdom,  had  Germany  been  at  peace."  But  when 
a  trait,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  proof  of  a  yet 
lingering  humanity,  and  which  a  mere  regard  to  appear- 
ances and  even  self-love  would  have  extorted  from  the 
most  insensible,  and  the  absence  of  which  coiild  exist  only 
in  the  most  inhuman  heart,  has,  by  a  Roman  Catholic 
writer  of  modern  times  and  acknowledged  merit,  been 
made  the  subject  of  the  highest  eulogium,  and,  compared 
with  the  magnanimous  tears  of  Alexander  for  the  fall  of 
Darius,  our  distrust  is  excited  of  the  other  virtues  of  the 
writer's  hero,  and  what  is  still  worse,  of  his  own  ideas  of 
moral  dignity.  But  even  such  praise,  whatever  its  amount, 
is  much  for  one  whose  memory  his  biographer  has  to  clear 
from  the  suspicion  of  being  privy  to  the  assassination  of  a 
king. 

It  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  the  strong  leaning 
of  mankind  to  the  marvellous  would  leave  to  the  common 
course  of  nature  the  glory  of  ending  the  career  of  Gus- 
tavns  Adolphus.  The  death  of  so  formidable  a  rival  was 
too  important  an  event  for  the  Emperor  not  to  excite  in 
his  bitter  opponent  a  ready  suspicion  that  what  was  so 
much  to  his  interests  was  also  the  result  of  his  instiga- 
tion. For  the  execution,  however,  of  this  dark  deed  the 
Emperor  would  require  the  aid  of  a  foreign  arm,  and  this 
it  was  generally  believed  he  had  found  in  Francis  Albert, 


2G8  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

Duke  of  Saxe  Lauenburg.  The  rank  of  the  latter  per- 
mitted him  a  free  access  to  the  king's  person,  while  it  at 
the  same  time  seemed  to  place  him  above  the  suspicion 
of  so  foul  a  deed.  This  prince  however  was  in  fact  not 
incapable  of  this  atrocity,  and  he  had  moreover  sufficient 
motives  for  its  commission. 

Francis  Albert,  the  youngest  of  four  sons  of  Francis 
II.,  Duke  of  Lauenburg,  and  related  by  the  mother's  side 
to  the  race  of  Vasa,  had  in  his  early  years  found  a  most 
friendly  rece})tion  at  the  Swedish  court.  Some  offence 
which  he  had  committed  against  Gustavus  Adolphus  in 
the  queen's  chamber  was,  it  is  said,  repaid  by  this  fiery 
youth  with  a  box  on  the  ear ;  which,  though  immediately 
repented  of,  and  amply  apologized  for,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  an  irreconcilable  hate  in  the  vindictive  heart  of 
the  duke.  Francis  Albert  subsequently  entered  the  im- 
perial service,  where  he  rose  to  the  command  of  a  reg- 
iment, and  formed  a  close  intimacy  with  Wallenstein, 
and  condescended  to  be  the  instrument  of  a  secret  nego- 
tiation with  the  Saxon  court  .which  did  little  honor  to 
his  rank.  Without  any  sufficient  cause  being  assigned, 
he  suddenly  quitted  the  Austrian  service,  and  appeared 
in  the  king's  camp  at  Nuremberg  to  offer  his  services  as 
a  volunteer.  By  his  show  of  zeal  for  the  Protestant 
cause,  and  prepossessing  and  flattering  deportment,  he 
gained  the  heart  of  the  king,  who,  warned  in  jain  by 
Oxenstiern,  continued  to  lavish  his  favor  and  friendship 
on  this  suspicious  newcomer.  The  battle  of  Lutzen  soon 
followed,  in  which  Francis  Albert,  like  an  evil  genius, 
kept  close  to  the  king's  side  and  did  not  leave  him  till  he 
fell.  He  owed,  it  was  thought,  his  own  safety  amidst  the 
fire  of  the  enemy  to  a  green  sash  which  he  wore,  the  color 
of  the  Imperialists.  He  was  at  any  rate  the  first  to  convey 
to  his  friend  Wallenstein  the  intelligence  of  the  king's 
death.  After  the  battle  he  exchanged  "the  Swedish  service 
for  the  Saxon  ;  and,  after  the  murder  of  Wallenstein,  being 
charged  with  being  an  accomplice  of  that  general,  he  only 
escaped  the  sword  of  justice  by  abjuring  his  faith.  His 
last  appearance  in  life  was  as  commander  of  an  imperial 
army  in  Silesia,  where  he  died  of  the  wounds  he  had  re- 
ceived before  Schweidnitz.     It  requires  some  effort  to 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  269 

believe  in  the  innocence  of  a  man  who  had  run  through 
a  career  like  this  of  the  act  charged  against  him ;  but 
however  great  may  be  the  moral  and  physical  possibility 
of  his  committing  such  a  crime,  it  must  still  be  allowed 
that  there  are  no  certain  grounds  for  imputing  it  to  him. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  it  is  well  known  exposed  himself  to 
danger,  like  the  meanest  soldier  in  his  army,  and  where 
thousands  fell  he  too  might  naturally  meet  his  death. 
How  it  reached  him  remains  indeed  buried  in  mystery; 
but  here,  more  than  anywhere,  does  the  maxim  apply, 
that  where  the  ordinary  course  of  things  is  fully  sufficient 
to  account  for  the  fact  the  honor  of  human  nature  ought 
not  to  be  stained  by  any  suspicion  of  moral  atrocity. 

But  by  whatever  hand  he  fell  his  extraordinary  destiny 
must  appear  a  great  interposition  of  Providence.  History, 
too  often  confined  to  the  ungrateful  task  of  analyzing  the 
uniform  play  of  human  passions,  is  occasionally  rewai'ded 
by  the  appearance  of  events  which  strike,  like  a  hand 
from  heaven,  into  the  nicely  adjusted  machinery  of  hu- 
man plans,  and  carry  the  contemplative  mind  to  a  higher 
order  of  things.  Of  this  kind  is  the  sudden  retirement 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  from  the  scene;  stopping  for  a 
time  the  whole  movement  of  the  political  machine,  and 
disappointing  all  the  calculations  of  human  prudence. 
Yesterday  the  very  soul,  the  great  and  animating  prin- 
ciple of  his  own  creation;  to-day  struck  unpitiably  to 
the  ground  in  the  very  midst  of  his  eagle  flight ;  untimely 
torn  from  a  whole  world  of  great  designs,  and  from  the 
ripening  harvest  of  his  expectations,  he  left  his  bereaved 
party  disconsolate;  and  the  proud  edifice  of  his  past 
greatness  sunk  into  ruins.  The  Protestant  party  had 
identified  its  hopes  with  its  invincible  leader,  and  scarcely 
can  it  now  separate  them  from  him  ;  with  him  they  now 
fear  all  good  fortune  is  buried.  But  it  was  no  longer  the 
benefactor  of  Germany  who  fell  at  Lutzen  ;  the  beneficent 
part  of  his  career  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  already  termi- 
nated ;  and  now  the  greatest  service  which  he  could 
render  to  the  liberties  of  Germany  was  —  to  die.  The 
all-engrossing  power  of  an  individual  was  at  an  end,  but 
many  came  forward  to  essay  their  strength  ;  the  equivo- 
cal assistance  of  an  over-powerful  protector  gave  place  to 


270  THE   THIKTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

a  more  noble  self-exertion  on  the  part  of  the  Estates ;  and 
those  who  were  formerly  the  mere  instruments  of  his 
aggrandizement,  now  began  to  work  for  themselves. 
They  now  looked  to  their  own  exertions  for  the  emanci- 
pation which  could  not  be  received,  without  danger  from 
the  hand  of  the  mighty;  and  the  Swedish  power,  now 
incapable  of  sinking  into  the  oppressor,  was  henceforth 
restricted  to  the  more  modest  part  of  an  ally. 

The  ambition  of  the  Swedish  monarch  aspired  unques- 
tionably to  establish  a  power  within  Germany,  and  to 
attain  a  firm  footing  in  the  centre  of  the  empire,  which 
was  inconsistent  with  the  liberties  of  the  Estates.  His 
aim  was  the  imperial  crown ;  and  this  dignity,  supported 
by  his  power,  and  maintained  by  his  energy  and  activity, 
would  in  his  hands  be  liable  to  more  abuse  than  had 
ever  been  feared  from  the  House  of  Austria.  Bora  in  a 
foreign  country,  educated  in  the  maxims  of  arbitrary 
power,  and  by  principles  and  enthusiasm  a  determined 
enemy  to  Popery,  he  was  ill-qualified  to  maintain  invio- 
late the  constitution  of  the  German  States  or  to  respect 
their  liberties.  The  coercive  homage  which  Augsburg, 
with  many  other  cities,  was  forced  to  pay  to  the  Swedish 
crown  bespoke  the  conqueror  rather  than  the  protector 
of  the  empire ;  and  this  town,  prouder  of  the  title  of  a 
royal  city  than  of  the  higher  dignity  of  the  freedom 
of  the  empire,  flattered  itself  with  the  anticipation  oi 
becoming  the  capital  of  his  future  kingdom.  His  ill- 
disguised  attempts  upon  the  Electorate  of  Mentz,  which 
he  first  intended  to  bestow  upon  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg as  the  dower  of  his  daughter  Christina,  and  after- 
wai-ds  destined  for  his  chancellor  and  friend,  Oxenstiern, 
evinced  plainly  what  liberties  he  was  disposed  to  take 
with  the  constitution  of  the  empire.  His  allies,  the  Prot- 
estant princes,  had  claims  on  his  gratitude  which  could 
be  satisfied  only  at  the  expense  of  their  Roman  Catholic 
neighbors,  and  particularly  of  the  immediate  Ecclesias- 
tical Chapters;  and  it  seems  probable  a  plan  was  early 
formed  for  dividing  the  conquered  provinces  (after  the 
precedent  of  the  barbarian  hordes  who  overran  the  Ger- 
man empire),  as  a  coniniou  s|)oi],  among  tlio  Gorman  and 
Swedish  confederates.     In  his  treatment  of  the  Elector 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  271 

Palatine  he  entirely  belied  the  magnanimity  of  the  hero, 
and  forgot  the  sacred  character  of  a  protector.  The 
Palatinate  was  in  his  hands,  and  the  obligations  both  of 
justice  and  honor  demanded  its  full  and  immediate  resto- 
ration to  the  legitimate  sovereign.  But  by  a  subtlety 
unworthy  of  a  great  mind,  and  disgraceful  to  the  honor- 
able title  of  protector  of  the  oppressed,  he  eluded  that 
obligation.  He  treated  the  Palatinate  as  a  conquest 
wrested  from  the  enemy,  and  thought  that  this  cii'cum- 
stance  gave  him  a  right  to  deal  with  it  as  he  pleased.  He 
surrendered  it  to  the  Elector  as  a  favor,  not  as  a  debt; 
and  that,  too,  as  a  Swedish  fief,  fettered  by  conditions 
which  diminished  half  its  value,  and  degraded  this  unfor- 
tunate prince  into  an  humble  vassal  of  Sweden.  One  of 
these  conditions  obliged  the  Elector,  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  war,  to  furnish,  along  with  the  other  princes,  his 
contribution  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Swedish 
army,  a  condition  which  plainly  indicates  the  fate  which, 
in  the  event  of  the  ultimate  success  of  the  king,  awaited 
Germany.  His  sudden  disappearance  secured  the  liber- 
ties of  Germany,  and  saved  his  reputation,  while  it  pi'ob- 
ably  spared  him  the  mortification  of  seeing  his  own  allies 
in  arms  against  him,  and  all  the  fruits  of  his  victoiies 
torn  from  him  by  a  disadvantageous  peace.  Saxony  was 
already  disposed  to  abandon  him,  Denmark  viewed  his 
success  with  alarm  and  jealousy ;  and  even  France,  the 
firmest  and  most  potent  of  his  allies,  terrified  at  the 
rapid  growth  of  his  power  and  the  imperious  tone  which 
he  assumed,  looked  around  at  the  very  moment  he  passed 
the  Lech  for  foreign  alliances,  in  order  to  check  the 
progress  of  the  Goths  and  restore  to  Europe  the  balance 
of  power. 


BOOK   IV. 


The  weak  bond  of  union  by  which  Gustavus  Adolphus 
contrived  to  hold  to'^^ether  the  Protestant  members  of 
the  empire  was  dissolved  by  his  death ;  the  allies  were 
now  again  at  liberty,  and  their  alliance  to  last  must  be 


272  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

formed  anew.  By  the  former  event,  if  unremedied,  they 
would  lose  all  the  advantages  they  had  gained  at  the  cost 
of  so  much  bloodshed,  and  expose  themselves  to'  the  inev- 
itable danger  of  becoming,  one  after  the  other,  the  prey 
of  an  enemy  whom,  by  their  union  alone,  they  had  been 
able  to  oppose  and  to  master.  Neither  Sweden  nor  any 
of  the  states  of  the  empire  was  singly  a  match  with  the 
Emperor  and  the  League ;  and,  by  seeking  a  peace  under 
the  present  state  of  things,  they  would  necessarily  be 
obliged  to  receive  laws  from  the  enemy.  Union  was, 
therefore,  equally  indispensable,  either  for  concluding  a 
peace  or  continuing  the  war.  But  a  peace  sought  under 
the  present  circumstances  could  not  fail  to  be  disadvan- 
tageous to  the  allied  powers.  With  the  death  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  the  enemy  had  formed  new  hopes ;  and 
however  gloomy  might  be  the  situation  of  his  affairs 
after  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  still  the  death  of  his  dreaded 
rival  was  an  event  too  disastrous  to  the  allies,  and  too 
favorable  for  the  Emperor,  not  to  justify  him  in  enter- 
taining the  most  brilliant  expectations,  and  not  to  en- 
courage him  to  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Its  inevitable 
consequence,  for  the  moment  at  least,  must  be  want  of 
union  among  the  allies,  and  what  might  not  the  Emperor 
and  the  League  gain  from  such  a  division  of  their  ene- 
mies? He  was  not  likely  to  sacrifice  such  prospects  as 
the  present  turn  of  affairs  held  out  to  him  for  any  peace 
not  highly  beneficial  to  himself;  and  such  a  peace  the 
allies  would  not  be  disposed  to  accept.  They  naturally 
determined,  therefore,  to  continue  the  war,  and  for  this 
purpose  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  union  was  ac- 
knowledged to  be  indispensable. 

But  how  was  this  union  to  be  renewed ;  and  whence 
were  to  be  derived  the  necessary  means  for  continuing 
the  war  ?  It  was  not  the  power  of  Sweden,  but  the  talents 
and  personal  influence  of  its  late  king,  Avhich  had  given 
him  so  overwhelming  an  influence  in  Germany,  so  great 
a  coTumand  over  the  minds  of  men ;  and  even  he  had 
innumerable  difliculties  to  overcome  before  he  could  estab- 
lish among  the  states  even  a  weak  and  Avavering  alliance. 
With  his  death  vanishcfl  all  which  liis  personal  ({iialilies 
alone  had  rendered  })racticablc  ;  and  the  mutual  obliga- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  273 

tion  of  the  states  seemed  to  cease  with  the  hopes  on  which 
it  had  been  founded.  Several  impatiently  threw  off  the 
yoke  which  had  always  been  irksome ;  others  hastened  to 
seize  the  helm  which  they  had  unwillingly  seen  in  the 
hands  of  Gustavus,  but  which,  during  his  lifetime,  they 
did  not  dare  to  dispute  with  him.  Some  were  tempted 
by  the  seductive  promises  of  the  Emperor  to  abandon 
the  alliance ;  others,  oppressed  by  the  heavy  burdens  of 
a  fourteen  years'  war,  longed  for  the  repose  of  peace 
upon  any  conditions,  however  ruinous.  The  generals  of 
the  army,  partly  German  princes,  acknowledged  no  com- 
mon head,  and  no  one  would  stoop  to  receive  orders  from 
another.  Unanimity  vanished  alike  from  the  cabinet  and 
the  field,  and  their  common  weal  was  threatened  with  ruin 
by  the  spirit  of  disunion. 

Gustavus  had  left  no  male  heir  to  the  crown  of  Sweden ; 
his  daughter,  Christina,  then  six  years  old,  was  the  natural 
heir.  The  unavoidable  weakness  of  a  regency  suited  ill 
witli  the  energy  and  resolution  which  Sweden  would  be 
called  upon  to  display  in  this  trying  conjimcture.  The 
wide-reaching  mind  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  raised  this 
unimportant  and  hitherto  unknown  kingdom  to  a  rank 
among  the  powers  of  Europe  which  it  could  not  retain 
without  the  fortune  and  genius  of  its  author,  and  from 
which  it  could  not  recede  without  a  humiliating  confession 
of  weakness.  Though  the  German  war  had  been  con- 
ducted chiefly  on  the  resources  of  Germany,  yet  even  the 
small  contribution  of  men  and  money  which  Sweden  fur- 
nished had  sufllced  to  exhaust  the  finances  of  that  poor 
kingdom,  and  the  peasantry  groaned  beneath  the  imposts 
necessarily  laid  upon  them.  The  plunder  gained  in  Ger- 
many enriched  only  a  few  individuals  among  the  nobles 
and  the  soldiers,  while  Sweden  itself  remained  poor  as 
before.  For  a  time,  it  is  true,  the  national  glory  recon- 
ciled the  subject  to  these  burdens,  and  the  sums  exacted 
seemed  but  as  a  loan  placed  at  interest  in  the  fortunate 
hand  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  be  richly  repaid  by  the 
grateful  monarch  at  the  conclusion  of  a  glorious  peace. 
But  with  the  king's  death  this  hope  vanished,  and  the 
deluded  people  now  loudly  demanded  relief  from  their 
burdens. 


274  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

But  the  spirit  of  Gustavus  Adolplius  still  lived  in  the 
men  to  whom  he  had  confided  the  administration  of 
the  kingdom.  However  dreadful  to  them  and  unexpected 
was  the  intelligence  of  his  death,  it  did  not  dej)rive  them 
of  their  manly  courage ;  and  the  spirit  of  ancient  Rome, 
under  the  invasion  of  Brennus  and  Hannibal,  animated 
this  noble  assembly.  The  greater  the  jjrice  at  which 
these  hard-gained  advantages  had  been  purchased  the 
less  readily  could  they  reconcile  themselves  to  renounce 
them;  not  unrevenged  was  a  king  to  be  sacrified.  Called 
on  to  choose  between  a  doubtful  and  exhausting  war  and 
a  profitable  but  disgraceful  peace,  the  Swedish  council  of 
state  boldly  espoused  the  side  of  danger  and  honor ;  and. 
with  agreeable  surprise  men  beheld  this  venerable  senate 
acting  with  all  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  youth.  Sur- 
rounded with  watchful  enemies,  both  within  and  without, 
and  threatened  on  every  side  with  danger,  they  armed 
themselves  against  them  all,  with  equal  prudence  and 
heroism,  and  labored  to  extend  their  kingdom,  even  at 
the  moment  when  they  had  to  struggle  for  its  existence. 

The  decease  of  the  king,  and  the  minority  of  his 
daughter  Christina,  renewed  the  claims  of  Poland  to  the 
Swedish  throne  ;  and  King  Ladislaus,  the  son  of  Sigis- 
mund,  spared  no  intrigues  to  gain  a  party  in  Sweden.  On 
this  ground  the  regency  lost  no  time  in  proclaiming  the 
young  queen  and  arranging  the  administration  of  the 
regency.  All  the  officers  of  the  kingdom  were  summoned 
to  do  homage  to  their  new  princess  ;  all  correspondence 
with  Poland  prohibited,  and  the  edicts  of  previous 
monarchs  against  the  heirs  of  Sigismund  confirmed  by  a 
solemn  act  of  the  nation.  The  alliance  with  the  Czar  of 
Muscovy  was  carefully  renewed  in  order,  by  the  arms  of 
this  prince,  to  keep  the  hostile  Poles  in  check.  The  death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  put  an  end  to  the  jealousy  of 
Denmark,  and  removed  the  grounds  of  alarm  which  had 
stood  in  the  way  of  a  good  understanding  between  the 
two  states.  The  representations  by  which  the  enemy 
sought  to  stir  up  Christian  IV.  against  Sweden  were  no 
longer  listened  to ;  and  the  strong  wish  the  Danish 
monarch  entertained  for  the  marriage  of  his  son  Ulrick 
with  the  young  princess,  combined,  with  the  dictates  of  a 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  275 

sounder  policy,  to  incline  him  to  a  neutrality.  At  the 
same  time  England,  Holland,  and  France  came  forward 
with  the  gratifying  assurances  to  the  regency  of  continued 
friendship  and  supj^ort,  and  encouraged  them,  with  one 
voice,  to  j^rosecute  with  activity  the  war  which  hitherto 
had  been  conducted  with  so  much  glory.  Whatever 
reason  France  might  have  to  congratulate  itself  on  the 
death  of  the  Swedish  conqueror,  it  was  as  fully  sensible 
of  the  expediency  of  maintaining  the  alliance  with  Swe- 
den. Without  exposing  itself  to  great  danger  it  could 
not  allow  the  power  of  Sweden  to  sink  in  Germany. 
Want  of  resources  of  its  own  would  either  drive  Sweden 
to  conclude  a  hasty  and  disadvantageous  jDcace  wuth 
Austria,  and  then  all  the  j^ast  efforts  to  lower  the  ascend- 
ancy of  this  dangerous  power  would  be  thrown  away; 
or  necessity  and  despair  would  drive  the  armies  to  extort 
from  the  Roman  Catholic  states  the  means  of  support, 
and  France  would  then  be  regarded  as  the  betrayer  of 
those  very  states  who  had  placed  themselves  under  her 
powerful  protection.  The  death  of  Gustavus,  far  from 
breaking  up  the  alliance  between  France  and  Sweden, 
had  only  rendered  it  more  necessary  for  both  and  more 
profitable  for  France.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  since  he 
was  dead  who  had  stretched  his  protecting  arm  over 
Germany,  and  guarded  its  frontiers  against  the  encroach- 
ing designs  of  France,  could  the  latter  safely  pursue  its 
designs  upon  Alsace,  and  thus  be  enabled  to  sell  its  aid  to 
the  German  Protestants  at  a  dearer  rate. 

Strengthened  by  these  alliances,  secured  in  its  interior, 
and  defended  from  without  by  strong  frontier  garrisons 
and  fleets,  the  regency  did  not  delay  an  instant  to  con- 
tinue a  war  by  which  Sweden  had  little  of  its  own  to 
lose,  while,  if  success  attended  its  arms,  one  or  more  of 
the  German  provinces  might  be  won,  either  as  a  conquest 
or  indemnification  of  its  expenses.  Secure  amidst  its 
seas,  Sweden,  even  if  driven  out  of  Germany,  would 
scarcely  be  exposed  to  greater  peril  than  if  it  voluntarily 
retired  from  the  contest,  while  the  former  measure  was 
as  honorable  as  the  latter  was  disgraceful.  The  more 
boldness  the  regency  displayed  the  more  confidence 
would  they  inspire  among  their  confederates,  the  more 


276  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

respect  among  their  enemies,  and  the  more  favorable  con- 
ditions might  they  anticipate  in  the  event  of  peace.  If 
they  found  themselves  too  weak  to  execute  the  wide- 
ranging  projects  of  Gustavus  they  at  least  owed  it  to 
this  lofty  model  to  do  their  utmost  and  to  yield  to  no 
difficulty  short  of  absolute  necessity.  Alas,  that  jnotives 
of  self-interest  had  too  great  a  share  in  this  noble  deter- 
mination to  demand  our  unqualified  admiration !  For 
those  who  had  nothing  themselves  to  suffer  from  the 
calamities  of  war,  but  were  rather  to  be  enriched  by  it, 
it  was  an  easy  matter  to  resolve  upon  its  continuation ; 
for  the  German  empire  was,  in  the  end,  to  defray  the 
expenses ;  and  the  provinces  on  which  they  reckoned 
would  be  cheaply  purchased  with  the  few  troops  they 
sacrificed  to  them,  and  with  the  generals  who  were  placed 
at  the  head  of  armies,  composed  for  the  most  part  of 
Germans,  and  with  the  honorable  superintendence  of  all 
the  operations,  both  military  and  political. 

But  this  superintendence  was  irreconcilable  with  the 
distance  of  the  Swedish  regency  from  the  scene  of  action, 
and  with  the  slowness  which  necessarily  accompanies  all 
the  movements  of  a  council. 

To  one  comprehensive  mind  must  be  entrusted  the 
management  of  Swedish  interests  in  Germany,  and  with 
full  powers  to  determine  at  discretion  all  questions  of  war 
and  peace,  the  necessary  alliances,  or  the  acquisitions 
made.  With  dictatorial  power,  and  with  the  whole 
influence  of  the  crown  which  he  was  to  represent,  must 
this  important  magistrate  be  invested,  in  order  to  main- 
tain its  dignity,  to  enforce  united  and  combined  opera- 
tions, to  give  effect  to  his  orders,  and  to  supply  the  place 
of  the  monarch  whom  he  succeeded.  Such  a  man  was 
found  in  the  Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  the  first  minister, 
and,  what  is  more,  the  friend  of  the  deceased  king,  who, 
acquainted  with  all  the  secrets  of  his  master,  versed  in 
the  politics  of  Germany,  and  in  the  relations  of  all  the 
states  of  Europe,  was  unquestionably  the  fittest  instru- 
ment to  carry  out  the  plans  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in 
their  full  extent. 

Oxenstiern  was  on  his  way  to  Upper  Germany  in  order 
to  assemble  the  four  Upper  Circles  when  the  news  of  the 


THE   THIRTY  YEAKS'   WAR.  277 

king's  death  reached  hira  at  Hanau.  This  was  a  heavy- 
blow,  both  to  the  friend  and  the  statesman.  Sweden, 
indeed,  had  lost  but  a  king,  Germany  a  protector ;  but 
Oxcnstiern,  the  author  of  his  fortunes,  the  friend  of  his 
soul,  and  the  object  of  his  admiration.  Tliough  tlie 
greatest  sufferer  in  the  general  loss,  he  was  the  first  who 
by  his  energy  rose  from  the  blow,  and  the  only  one  quali- 
fied to  repair  it.  His  penetrating  glance  foresaw  all  the 
obstacles  which  would  oppose  the  execution  of  his  plans, 
the  discouragements  of  the  estates,  the  intrigues  of  hos- 
tile courts,  the  breaking  up  of  the  confederacy,  the  jeal- 
ousy of  the  leaders,  and  the  dislike  of  princes  of  the 
empire  to  submit  to  foreign  authority.  But  even  this 
deep  insight  into  the  existing  state  of  things,  which 
revealed  the  whole  extent  of  the  evil,  showed  him  also 
the  means  by  which  it  might  be  overcome.  It  was  essen- 
tial to  revive  the  drooping  courage  of  the  weaker  states, 
to  meet  the  secret  machinations  of  the  enemy,  to  allay 
the  jealousy  of  the  more  powerful  allies,  to  rouse  the 
friendly  powers,  and  France  in  particular,  to  active 
assistance ;  but,  above  all,  to  repair  the  ruined  edifice  of 
the  German  alliance,  and  to  reunite  the  scattered  strength 
of  the  party  by  a  close  and  permanent  bond  of  union. 
The  dismay  which  the  loss  of  their  leader  occasioned  the 
German  Protestants  might  as  readily  dispose  them  to  a 
closer  alliance  with  Sweden  as  to  a  hasty  peace  with  the 
Emperor ;  and  it  depended  entirely  upon  the  course  pur- 
sued which  of  these  alternatives  they  would  adopt. 
Everything  might  be  lost  by  the  slightest  sign  of  despond- 
ency ;  nothing  but  the  confidence  which  Sweden  showed 
in  herself  could  kindle  among  the  Germans  a  noble  feel- 
ing of  self-confidence.  All  the  attempts  of  Austria  to 
detach  these  princes  from  the  Swedish  alliance  would  be 
unavailing  the  moment  their  eyes  became  opened  to  their 
true  interests,  and  they  were  instigated  to  a  public  and 
formal  breach  with  the  Emperor. 

Before  these  measures  could  be  taken,  and  the  neces- 
sary points  settled  between  the  regency  and  their  minis- 
ter, a  precious  oj)portunity  of  action  would,  it  is  true,  be 
lost  to  the  Swedish  army,  of  which  the  enemy  would 
be  sure  to  take  the  utmost  advantage.     It  was,  in  short, 


278  THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'   WAR. 

in  tlie  power  of  the  Emperor  totally  to  ruin  the  Swedish 
interest  in  Germany,  and  to  this  he  was  actually  invited 
by  the  prudent  councils  of  the  Duke  of  Friedland. 
Wallenstein  advised  him  to  proclaim  an  universal  am- 
nesty and  to  meet  the  Protestant  states  with  favorable 
conditions.  In  the  first  consternation  produced  by  the 
fall  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  such  a  declaration  would  have 
liad  the  most  powerful  effects,  and  probably  would  have 
brouglit  the  wavering  states  back  to  their  allegiance. 
But  blinded  by  this  unexj^ected  turn  of  fortune,  and  in- 
fatuated by  the  Spanish  counsels,  h6  anticipated  a  more 
brilliant  issue  from  war ;  and  instead  of  listening  to  these 
propositions  of  an  accommodation  he  hastened  to  aug- 
ment his  forces.  Spain,  enriched  by  the  grant  of  the 
tenth  of  the  ecclesiastical  possessions,  which  the  Pope 
confirmed,  sent  him  considerable  supplies,  negotiated  for 
liim  at  the  Saxon  court,  and  hastily  levied  troops  for  him 
in  Italy  to  be  employed  in  Germany.  The  Elector  of 
Bavaria  also  considerably  increased  his  military  force; 
and  the  restless  disposition  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  did 
not  permit  him  to  remain  inactive  in  this  favorable  change 
of  fortune.  But  while  the  enemy  were  thus  busy  to 
profit  by  the  disaster  of  Sweden  Oxenstiern  was  diligent 
to  avert  its  most  fatal  consequences. 

Less  apprehensive  of  open  enemies  than  of  the  jealousy 
of  the  friendly  powers,  he  left  Upper  Germany,  which 
he  had  secured  by  conquests  and  alliances,  and  set  out 
in  person  to  prevent  a  total  defection  of  the  Lower  Ger- 
man states,  or,  what  would  have  been  almost  equally 
ruinous  to  Sweden,  a  private  alliance  among  themselves. 
Offended  at  the  boldness  with  which  the  chancellor 
assumed  the  direction  of  affairs,  and  inwardly  exasper- 
ated at  the  thought  of  being  dictated  to  by  a  Swedish 
nobleman,  the  Elector  of  Saxony  again  meditated  a  dan- 
gerous separation  from  Sweden ;  and  the  only  question 
in  his  mind  was  whether  he  should  make  full  terms  with 
the  Emperor  or  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Prot- 
estants and  form  a  third  party  in  Germany.  Similar 
ideas  were  cherished  by  Duke  tJlric  of  Brunswick,  who, 
indeed,  showed  them  openly  enough  by  forbidding  the 
Swedes  from   recruiting  within  his   dominions,  and  in- 


THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  279 

viting  the  Lower  Saxon  states  to  Luneburg  for  the 
purpose  of  forming  a  confederacy  among  themselves. 
The  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  jealous  of  the  influence 
which  Saxony  was  likely  to  attain  in  Lower  Germany, 
alone  manifested  any  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  Swedish 
tlirone,  which,  in  thought,  he  already  destined  for  his 
son.  At  the  court  of  Saxony  Oxenstiern  was  no  doubt 
honorably  received ;  but,  notwithstanding  the  personal 
efforts  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  empty  promises  of 
continued  friendship  were  all  which  he  could  obtain. 
With  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  he  was  more  successful, 
for  with  him  he  ventured  to  assume  a  bolder  tone.  Swe- 
den was  at  the  time  in  possession  of  the  see  of  Magde- 
burg, the  bishop  of  which  had  the  power  of  assembling 
the  Lower  Saxon  circle.  The  chancellor  now  asserted 
the  rights  of  the  crown,  and  by  this  spirited  proceeding 
put  a  stop  for  the  present  to  this  dangerous  assembly 
designed  by  the  duke.  The  main  object,  however,  of  his 
present  journey  and  of  his  future  endeavors,  a  general 
confederacy  of  the  Protestants,  miscarried  entirely,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  some  unsteady 
alliances  in  the  Saxon  circles,  and  with  the  weaker  assist- 
ance of  Upper  Germany. 

As  the  Bavarians  were  too  powerful  on  the  Danube 
the  assembly  of  the  four  Upper  Circles,  which  should 
have  been  held  at  Ulm,  was  removed  to  Heilbronn,  where 
deputies  of  more  than  twelve  cities  of  the  empire,  Avith 
a  brilliant  crowd  of  doctors,  counts,  and  princes,  attended. 
The  ambassadors  of  foreign  powers,  likewise,  France, 
England,  and  Holland,  attended  this  congress,  at  which 
Oxenstiern  appeared  in  person  with  all  the  splendor  of 
the  crown  whose  representative  he  was.  He  himself 
opened  the  proceedings  and  conducted  the  deliberations. 
After  receiving  from  all  the  assembled  estates  assurances 
of  unshaken  fidelity,  perseverance,  and  unity,  he  required 
of  them  solemnly  and  formally  to  declare  the  Emperor 
and  the  League  as  enemies.  But  desirable  as  it  was  for 
Sweden  to  exasperate  the  ill-feeling  between  the  Emperor 
and  the  estates  into  a  formal  rupture,  the  latter,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  equally  indisposed  to  shut  out  the  possi- 
l)ility  of  reconciliation  by  so  decided  a  step,  and  to  place 


280  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

themselves  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  They 
maintained  that  any  formal  declaration  of  war  was  useless 
and  superfluous,  where  the  act  would  speak  for  itself, 
and  their  firmness  on  this  point  silenced  at  last  the  chan- 
cellor. Warmer  disputes  arose  on  the  third  and  principal 
article  of  the  treaty,  concerning  the  means  of  prosecuting 
the  war,  and  the  quota  which  the  several  states  ought  to 
furnish  for  the  support  of  the  army.  Oxenstiern's  maxim, 
to  throw  as  much  as  possible  of  the  common  burden  on 
the  states,  did  not  suit  very  well  with  their  determination 
to  give  as_  little  as  possible.  The  Swedish  chancellor 
now  experienced  what  had  been  felt  by  thirty  emperors 
before  him  to  their  cost,  that  of  all  difficult  undertakings 
the  most  difficult  was  to  extort  money  from  the  Germans. 
Instead  of  granting  the  necessary  sums  for  the  new  armies 
to  be  raised,  they  eloquently  dwelt  upon  the  calamities 
occasioned  by  the  former,  and  demanded  relief  from  the 
old  burdens  when  they  Avere  required  to  submit  to  new. 
The  irritation  which  the  chancellor's  demand  for  money 
raised  among  the  states  gave  rise  to  a  thousand  com- 
plaints ;  and  the  outrages  committed  by  the  troops  in 
their  marches  and  quarters  were  dwelt  uj^on  with  a 
startling  minuteness  and  truth. 

In  the  service  of  two  absolute  monarchs  Oxenstiern 
had  but  little  opportunity  to  become  accustomed  to  the 
formalities  and  cautious  proceedings  of  republican  de- 
liberations, or  to  bear  opposition  with  patience.  Ready 
to  act  the  instant  the  necessity  of  action  was  apparent, 
and  inflexible  in  his  resolution  when  he  had  once  taken 
it,  he  was  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  the  inconsistency  of 
,  most  men,  who,  Avhile  they  desire  the  end,  are  yet  averse 
to  the  means.  Prompt  and  impetuous  by  nature,  he  was 
so  on  this  occasion  from  principle;  for  everything  de- 
pended on  concealing  the  weakness  of  Sweden  under  a 
firm  and  confident  speech,  and  by  assuming  the  tone  of  a 
lawgiver,  really  to  become  so.  It  was  notliing  wonderful, 
therefore,  if,  amidst  these  interminable  discussions  with 
German  doctors  and  deputies,  he  was  entirely  out  of  his 
sphere,  and  if  the  deliberateness  which  distinguishes  the 
character  of  the  Germans  in  their  public  deliberations 
had  driven  him  almost  to  despair.     Without  respecting  a 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  281 

custom,  to  which  even  the  most  powerful  of  the  emperors 
had  been  obliged  to  conform,  he  rejecte.d  all  written  de- 
liberations, which  suited  so  well  with  the  national  slow- 
ness of  resolve.  He  could  not  conceive  how  ten  days 
could  be  spent  in  debating  a  measure  which  with  him- 
self was  decided  upon  its  bare  suggestion.  Harshly, 
however,  as  he  treated  the  states  he  found  them  ready 
enough  to  assent  to  his  fourth  motion,  which  concerned 
himself.  When  he  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  giving  a 
director  to  the  new  confederation  that  honor  was  un- 
animously assigned  to  Sweden,  and  he  himself  was 
huiubly  requested  to  give  to  the  common  cause  the  bene- 
fit of  his  enlightened  experience,  and  to  take  upon  him- 
self the  burden  of  the  supreme  command.  But  in  order 
to  prevent  his  abusing  the  great  powers  thus  conferred 
upon  him  it  was  proposed,  not  without  French  influence, 
to  appoint  a  number  of  overseers,  in  fact,  under  the  name 
of  assistants,  to  control  the  expenditure  of  the  common 
treasure  and  to  consult  with  him  as  to  the  levies, 
marches,  and  quarterings  of  the  troops.  Oxenstiern 
long  and  strenuously  resisted  this  limitation  of  his  au- 
thority, which  could  not  fail  to  trammel  him  in  the  exe- 
cution of  every  enterprise  requiring  promptitude  or 
secrecy,  and  at  last  succeeded,  with  difficulty,  in  obtain- 
ing so  far  a  modification  of  it  that  his  management  in 
affairs  of  war  was  to  be  uncontrolled.  The  chancellor 
finally  approached  the  delicate  point  of  the  indemnifica- 
tion which  Sweden  was  to  expect  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
war  from  the  gratitude  of  the  allies,  and  flattered  him- 
self with  the  hope  that  Pomerania,  the  main  object  of 
Sweden,  would  be  assigned  to  her,  and  that  he  would, 
obtain  from  the  provinces  assurances  of  effectual  co- 
operation in  its  acquisition.  But  he  could  obtain  nothing 
more  than  a  vague  assurance  that  in  a  general  peace  the 
interests  of  all  parties  would  be  attended  to.  That  on 
this  point  the  caution  of  tlie  estates  was  not  owing  to  any 
regard  for  the  constitution  of  the  empire  became  mani- 
fest from  the  liberality  they  evinced  towards  the  chan- 
cellor at  the  expense  of  the  most  sacred  laws  of  the 
emi)ire.  Tliey  were  ready  to  grant  him  the  arclibisliopric 
of  Mentz  (which  he  already  held  as  a  conquest),  and  only 


282  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

with  difficulty  did  tlie  French  ambassador  succeed  in 
preventing  a  step  which  was  as  impolitic  as  it  was  dis- 
graceful. Though,  on  the  whole,  the  result  of  the  con- 
gress had  fallen  far  short  of  Oxenstiern's  expectations, 
he  had  at  least  gained  for  himself  and  his  crown  his 
main  object,  namely,  the  direction  of  the  whole  con- 
federacy ;  he  had  also  succeeded  in  strengthening  the 
bond  of  union  between  the  four  upper  circles,  and  ob- 
tained from  the  states  a  yearly  contribution  of  two  mil- 
lions and  a  half  of  dollars  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
army. 

These  concessions  on  the  part  of  the  States  demanded 
some  return  from  Sweden.  A  few  weeks  after  the  death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  sorrow  ended  the  days  of  the 
unfortunate  Elector  Palatine.  For  eight  months  he  had 
swelled  the  pomp  of  his  protector's  court  and  expended 
on  it  the  small  remainder  of  his  patrimony.  He  was  at 
last  approaching  the  goal  of  his  wishes,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  a  brighter  future  was  opening  when  death 
deprived  him  of  his  protector.  But  what  he  regarded  as 
the  greatest  calamity  was  highly  favorable  to  his  heirs. 
Gustavus  might  venture  to  delay  the  restoration  of  his 
dominions  or  to  load  the  gift  with  liard  conditions ;  but 
Oxenstiern,  to  whom  the  friendship  of  England,  Holland, 
and  Brandenburg,  and  the  good  o})inion  of  tlie  Reformed 
States  were  indispensable,  felt  the  necessity  of  immedi- 
ately fulfilling  the  obligations  of  justice.  At  this  assem- 
bly at  Heilbronn,  therefore,  he  engaged  to  surrender  to 
Frederick's  heirs  the  whole  Palatinate,  both  the  part 
already  conquered,  and  that  which  remained  to  be  con- 
quered, with  the  exception  of  Manheim,  which  the 
Swedes  were  to  hold  until  they  should  be  indemnified 
for  their  expenses.  The  chancellor  did  not  confine  his 
liberality  to  the  family  of  the  Palatine  alone;  the  other 
allied  princes  received  proofs,  though  at  a  later  period, 
of  the  gratitude  of  Sweden,  which,  however,  she  dis- 
pensed at  little  cost  to  herself. 

Impartiality,  the  most  sacred  obligation  of  the  histo- 
rian, here  compels  us  to  an  adtnission  not  much  to  the 
lionor  of  the  champions  of  (Jcnnan  liberty.  However 
the  I'rotestaiit  princes  might  boast  of  the  justice  of  their 


THE   TinRTY   years'   WAR.  283 

cause,  and  the  sincerity  of  their  conviction,  still  the 
motives  from  which  they  acted  were  selfish  enough  ;  and 
the  desire  of  stripping  others  of  their  possessions  had  at 
least  as  great  a  share  in  the  commencement  of  hostilities 
as  the  fear  of  being  deprived  of  their  own.  Gustavus 
soon  found  that  he  might  reckon  much  more  on  these 
selfish  motives  than  on  their  patriotic  zeal,  and  did  not 
fail  to  avail  himself  of  them.  Each  of  his  confederates 
received  from  him  the  promise  of  some  possession,  either 
already  wrested  or  to  be  afterwards  taken  from  the 
enemy;  and  death  alone  prevented  him  from  fulfilling 
these  engagements.  What  prudence  had  suggested  to 
the  king  necessity  now  prescribed  to  his  successor.  If 
it  was  his  object  to  continue  the  war  he  must  be  ready 
to  divide  the  spoil  among  the  allies,  and  promise  them 
advantages  from  the  confusion  which  it  was  his  object 
to  continue.  Thus  he  promised  to  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse  the  abbacies  of  Paderborn,  Corvey,  Munster,  and 
Fulda ;  to  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  the  Franconian 
bishoprics ;  to  the  Duke  of  Wirtemberg  the  Ecclesias- 
tical domains,  and  the  Austrian  countries  lying  within 
his  territories,  all  under  the  title  of  fiefs  of  Sweden, 
This  spectacle,  so  strange  and  so  dishonorable  to  the 
German  character,  surprised  the  chancellor,  who  found 
it  ditiicult  to  repress  his  contempt,  and  on  one  occasion 
exclaimed,  "  Let  it  be  writ  in  our  records  for  an  ever- 
lasting memorial  that  a  German  prince  made  such  a 
request  of  a  Swedish  nobleman,  and  that  the  Swedish 
nobleman  granted  it  to  the  German  upon  German 
ground !  " 

After  these  successful  measures  he  was  in  a  condition 
to  take  the  field  and  jirosecute  the  war  with  fresh  vigor. 
Soon  after  the  victory  at  Lutzen  the  troops  of  Saxony 
and  Lunenburg  united  with  the  Swedish  main  body  ;  and 
the  Imperialists  were  in  a  short  time  totally  driven  from 
Saxony.  The  united  army  again  divided  ;  the  Saxons 
marched  towards  Lusatia  and  Silesia,  to  act  in  conjunction 
with  Count  Thurn  against  the  Austrians  in  that  quarter ; 
a  part  of  the  Swedish  army  was  led  by  the  Duke  of 
Weimar  into  Franconia,  and  the  other  by  George,  Duke 
of  Brunswick,  into  Westphalia  and  Lower  Saxony. 


284  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

The  conquests  on  the  Lech  and  the  Danube  during 
Gustavus'  expedition  into  Saxony  had  been  maintained 
by  the  Palatine  of  Birkenfeld  and  the  Swedish  General 
Banner  against  the  Bavarians  ;  but,  unable  to  hold  their 
ground  against  the  victorious  progress  of  the  latter, 
supported  as  they  were  by  the  bravery  and  military  expe- 
rience of  the  Imperial  General  Altringer,  they  were  under 
tlie  necessity  of  summoning  the  Swedish  General  Horn 
to  their  assistance  from  Alsace.  This  experienced  general 
having  captured  the  towns  of  Benfeld,  Schlettstadt,  Col- 
mar,  and  Hagenau,  committed  the  defence  of  them  to  the 
Rhinegrave  Otto  Louis,  and  hastily  crossed  the  Rhine  to 
form  a  junction  with  Banner's  army.  But  although 
the  combined  force  amounted  to  more  than  sixteen  thou- 
sand they  could  not  prevent  the  enemy  from  obtaining  a 
strong  position  on  the  Swabian  frontier,  taking  Kempten, 
and  being  joined  by  seven  regiments  from  Bohemia.  Li 
order  to  retain  the  command  of  the  important  banks  of 
the  Lech  and  the  Danube  they  were  under  the  necessity 
of  recalling  the  Rhinegrave  Otto  Louis  from  Alsace, 
wliere  he  liad,  after  the  departure  of  Horn,  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  defend  himself  against  the  exasperated  jieasantry. 
With  his  army  he  was  now  summoned  to  strengthen  the 
army  on  the  Danube,  and  as  even  this  reinforcement  was 
insufficient,  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  was  earnestly 
pressed  to  turn  his  arms  into  this  quarter. 

Duke  Bernard,  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  campaign 
of  1633,  had  made  himself  master  of  the  town  and  terri- 
tory of  Bamberg,  and  was.  now  threatening  Wurtzburg. 
But  on  receiving  the  summons  of  General  Horn  without 
delay  he  began  his  march  towards  the  Danube,  defeated 
on  his  way  a  Bavarian  army  under  John  de  Werth,  and 
joined  the  Swedes  near  Donauwerth.  This  numerous 
force,  commanded  by  excellent  generals,  now  threatened 
Bavaria  with  a  fearful  inroad.  The  Bishopric  of  Eich- 
stadt  was  completely  overrun,  and  Ingoldstadt  was  on 
the  point  of  being  delivered  up  by  treachery  to  the 
Swedes.  Altringer,  fettered  in  his  movements  by  the 
express  onler  of  the  Duke  of  Friedland,  and  left  witlioiit 
assistance  from  Bohemia,  was  unable  to  check  the  pro- 
gress of  the  enemy.     The  most  favorable  circumstances 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  285 

combined  to  further  the  progress  of  the  Swedish  arms  in 
this  quarter,  when  the  operations  of  the  army  were  at 
once  stopped  by  a  mutiny  among  the  officers. 

All  the  previous   successes   in  Germany  were   owing 
altogether  to  arms  ;  the  greatness  of  Gustavus  himself  was 
the  work  of  the  army,  the  fruit  of  their  discipline,  their 
bravery,  and  their  persevering  courage  under  numberless 
dangers  and  privations.     However  wisely  his  plans  were 
laid  in  the  cabinet  it  was  to  the  army  ultimately  that  lie 
was  indebted  for  their  execution  ;    and  the   expanding 
designs  of  the  general  did  but  continually  impose  new 
burdens  on  the  soldiers.     All  the  decisive  advantages  of 
the  war  had  been  violently  gained  by  a  barbarous  sacrifice 
of  the  soldiers'  lives  in  winter  campaigns,  forced  marches, 
stormings,  and   pitched    battles,  for   it   was    Gustavus' 
maxim  never  to  decline  a  battle  so  long  as  it  cost  him 
nothing  but  men.     The  soldiers  could  not  long  be  ke])t 
ignorant    of     their    own    importance,    and   they    justly 
demanded  a  share  in  the  spoil  which  had  been  won  by 
their  own  blood.  Yet,  frequently  they  hardly  received  their 
pay,  and  the  rapacity  of  individual  generals  or  the  wants 
of  the  state  generally  swallowed  up  the  greater  part  of 
the  sums  raised  by  contributions  or  levied  upon  the  con- 
quered provinces.     For  all  the  privations  he  endured  the 
soldier  had  no  other  recompense  than  the  doubtful  chance 
either  of  plunder  or  promotion,  in  both  of  which  he  was 
often  disappointed.    During  the  lifetime  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  the  combined   influence  of  fear  and  hope  had  sup- 
pressed   any   open   complaint,  but    after   his   death    the 
murmurs  were  loud  and  universal,  and  the  soldiery  seized 
the  most  dangerous  moment  to  impress  their  superiors  with 
a  sense  of  their  importance.    Two  officers,  Pf  uhl  and  Mits- 
chefal,  notorious  as  restless  characters  even  during  the 
king's  life,  set  the  example  in  the  camp  on  the  Danube, 
which  in  a  few  days  was  imitated  by  almost  all  the  officers 
of  the  army.    They  solemnly  bound  themselves  to  obey  no 
orders  till  these  arrears,  now  outstanding  for  months,  and 
even  years,  should  be  paid  up,  and  a  gratuity,  either  in 
money  or  lands,  made  to  each  man  according  to  his  ser- 
vices.    "  Immense  sums,"  they  said,  "  were  daily  raised 
by  contributions  and  all  dissipated  by  a  few.    They  were 


286  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

called  out  to  serve  amidst  frost  and  snow  and  no  reward 
requited  their  incessant  labors.  The  soldiers'  excesses  at 
Heilbronn  had  been  blamed,  but  no  one  ever  talked  of 
their  services.  The  world  rung  Avith  the  tidings  of  con- 
quests and  victories,  but  it  was  by  their  hands  that  they 
had  been  fought  and  won." 

The  number  of  the  malcontents  daily  increased,  and 
they  even  attempted  by  letters  (which  were  fortunately 
intercepted)  to  seduce  the  armies  on  the  Rhine  and  in 
Saxony.  Neither  the  representations  of  Bernard  of 
Weimar  nor  the  stern  reproaches  of  his  harsher  associate 
in  command  could  suppress  the  mutiny,  while  the  vehe- 
mence of  Horn  seemed  only  to  increase  the  insolence  of 
the  insurgents.  The  conditions  they  insisted  on  were  that 
certain  towns  should  be  assigned  to  each  regiment  for  the 
payment  of  arrears.  Four  weeks  were  allowed  to  the 
Swedish  chancellor  to  comply  with  these  demands  ;  and 
in  case  of  refusal  they  announced  that  they  would  pay 
themselves,  and  never  more  draw  a  sword  for  Sweden. 

These  pressing  demands  made  at  the  very  time  when 
the  military  chest  was  exhausted,  and  credit  at  a  low  ebb, 
greatly  embarassed  the  chancellor.  The  remedy  he  saw 
must  be  found  quickly  before  the  contagion  should  spread 
to  the  other  trooj^s,  and  he  should  be  deserted  by  all  his 
armies  at  once.  Among  all  the  Swedish  generals  there 
was  only  one  of  sufficient  authority  and  influence  with 
the  soldiers  to  put  an  end  to  this  dispute.  The  Duke  of 
Weimar  was  the  favorite  of  the  army,  and  his  prudent 
moderation  had  won  the  good-will  of  the  soldiers,  while 
his  military  experience  had  excited  their  admiration.  He 
now  undertook  the  task  of  appeasing  the  discontented 
troops ;  but,  aware  of  his  importance,  he  embraced  the 
opportunity  to  make  advantageous  stipulations  for  him- 
self, and  to  make  the  embarassment  of  the  chancellor 
subservient  to  his  own  views. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  flattered  him  with  the  promise 
of  the  Duchy  of  Franconia,  to  be  formed  out  of  the  Bishop- 
rics of  Wurtzburg  and  Bamberg,  and  he  now  insisted  on 
the  performance  of  this  pledge.  He  at  the  same  time 
demanded  the  chief  command  as  generalissimo  of  Sweden. 
The  abuse  which  the  Duke  of  Weimar  thus  made  of  his 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  287 

influence  so  irritated  Oxenstiern  that,  in  the  first  mo- 
ment of  his  displeasure,  he  gave  him  his  dismissal  from  the 
Swedish  service.  But  he  soon  thought  better  of  it,  and 
determined,  instead  of  sacrificing  so  important  a  leader, 
to  attach  him  to  the  Swedish  interests  at  any  cost.  He 
therefore  o-ranted  to  him  the  Franconian  bishoprics  as  a 
fief  of  the*  Swedish  crown,  reserving,  however,  the  two 
fortresses  of  Wurtzburg  and  Konigshofen,  which  were  to 
be  garrisoned  l>y  the  Swedes;  and  also  engaged  in  name 
of  the  Swedish  crown  to  secure  these  territories  to  the 
duke.  His  demand  of  the  supreme  authority  was  evaded 
on  some  specious  pretext.  The  duke  did  not  delay  to 
display  his  gratitude  for  this  valuable  grant,  and  by  his 
influence  and  activity  soon  restored  tranquillity  to  the 
army.  Large  sums  of  money,  and  still  more  extensive 
estates,  were  divided  among  the  ofiicers,  amounting  in 
value  to  about  five  millions  of  dollars,  and  to  which  they 
had  no  other  right  but  that  of  conquest.  In  the  mean- 
time, however,  the  opportunity  for  a  great  undertaking 
had  been  lost,  and  the  united  generals  d:ivided  their  forces 
to  oppose  the  enemy  in  other  quarters. 

Gustavus  Horn,  after  a  short  inroad  into  the  Upper 
Palatinate  and  the  capture  of  Neumark,  directed  his 
march  towards  the  Swabian  frontier,  wliere  the  Imperi- 
alists, strongly  reinforced,,  threatened  Wurtemberg.  At 
his  approach  the  enemy  retired  to  the  Lake  of  Constance, 
but  only  to  show  the  Swedes  the  road  into  a  district 
hitherto  unvisited  by  war.  A  post  on  the  entrance  to 
Switzerland  would  be  highly  serviceable  to  the  Swedes, 
and  the  town  of  Kostnitz  seemed  peculiarly  well-fitted  to 
be  a  point  of  communication  between  him  and  the  con- 
federated cantons.  Accordingly  Gustavus  Horn  immedi- 
ately commenced  the  siege  of  it ;  but  destitute  of  artillery, 
for  which  he  was  obliged  to  send  to  Wirtemberg,  he  could 
not  press  the  attack  with  sufficient  vigor  to  prevent  the 
enemy  from  throwing  supplies  into  the  town,  which  the 
lake  afforded  them  convenient  opportunity  of  doing. 
He  therefore,  after  an  ineffectual  attempt,  quitted  the 
place  and  its  neighborhood  and  hastened  to  meet  a  more 
threatening  danger  upon  the  Danube. 

At  the  Emperor's  instigation  the  Cardinal  Infante,  the 


288  THE    THIRTY   YEARS     WAR. 

brother  of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  and  the  Viceroy  of  Milan, 
had  raised  an  army  of  fourteen  thousand  men,  intended 
to  act  upon  the  Rhine  independently  of  Wallenstein,  and 
to  protect  Alsace.  This  force  now  appeared  in  Bavaria, 
nnder  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Feria,  a  Spaniard ; 
and  that  they  might  be  directly  employed  against  the 
Swedes  Altringer  was  ordered  to  join  them  with  his 
corps.  Upon  the  first  intelligence  of  their  approach 
Horn  had  summoned  to  his  assistance  the  Palsgrave  of 
Birkenfeld  from  the  Rhine ;  and,  being  joined  by  him 
at  Stockach,  boldly  advanced  to  meet  the  enemy's  army 
of  thirty  thousand  men. 

The  latter  had  taken  the  route  across  the  Danube  into 
Swabia,  where  Gustavus  Horn  came  so  close  upon  them 
that  the  two  armies  were  only  separated  from  each  other 
by  half  a  German  mile.  But  instead  of  accepting  the  offer 
of  battle  the  Imperialists  moved  by  the  Forest  towns 
towards  Briesgau  and  Alsace,  where  they  arrived  in  time 
to  relieve  Breysack  and  to  arrest  the  victorious  progress 
of  the  Rhinegrave,  Otto  Louis.  The  latter  had  shortly 
before  taken  the  Forest  towns,  and,  supported  by  the 
Palatine  of  Birkenfeld,  who  had  liberated  the  Lower 
Palatmate  and  beaten  the  Duke  of  LoiTaine  out  of  the 
field,  had  once  more  given  the  superiority  to  the  Swedish 
arms  in  that  quarter.  He  was  now  forced  to  retire 
before  the  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy ;  but  Horn  and 
Birkenfeld  quickly  advanced  to  his  support,  and  the 
Imperialists  after  a  brief  triumph  were  again  expelled 
from  Alsace.  The  severity  of  the  autumn  in  which  this 
hapless  retreat  had  to  be  conducted  proved  fatal  to  most 
of  the  Italians ;  and  their  leader,  the  Duke  of  Feria,  died 
of  grief  at  the  failure  of  his  enterprise. 

in  the  meantime  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  had  taken 
up  his  position  on  the  Danube,  with  eighteen  regiments 
of  infantry  and  one  hundred  and  forty  squadrons  of 
horse,  to  cover  Franconia  and  to  watch  the  movements 
of  the  Imperial-Bavarian  army  upon  that  river.  No 
sooner  had  Altringer  departed  to  join  tlie  Italians  under 
Feria  than  Bernard,  profiting  by  his  absence,  hastened 
across  the  Danube,  and  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning 
appeared  before  Ratisbon.     The  2:)Ossession  of  this  town 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  289 

would  insure  the  success  of  the  Swedish  designs  upon 
Bavaria  and  Austria;  it  would  establish  them  firmly  on 
the  Danube,  and  provide  a  safe  refuge  in  case  of  defeat, 
while  it  alone  could  give  permanence  to  their  conquests 
in  that  quarter.  To  defend  Ratisbon  was  the  urgent 
advice  which  the  dying  Tilly  left  to  the  Elector;  and 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  lamented  it  as  an  irreparable 
loss  that  the  Bavarians  had  anticipated  him  in  taking 
possession  of  this  place.  Indescribable,  therefore,  was 
the  consternation  of  Maximilian  when  Duke  Bernard 
suddenly  appeared  before  the  town  and  prepared  in 
earnest  to  besiege  it. 

The  garrison  consisted  of  not  more  than  fifteen  com- 
panies, mostly  newly-raised  soldiers;  although  that  num- 
ber was  more  than  sufficient  to  weary  out  an  enemy  of 
far  superior  force  if  supported  by  well-disposed  and 
warlike  inhabitants.  But  this  was  not  the  greatest  dan- 
ger which  the  Bavarian  garrison  had  to  contend  against. 
The  Protestant  uihabitants  of  Ratisbon,  equally  jealous 
of  their  civil  and  religious  freedom,  had  unwillingly  sub- 
mitted to  the  yoke  of  Bavaria,  and  had  long  looked  with 
impatience  for  the  appearance  of  a  deliverer.  Bernard's 
arrival  before  the  walls  filled  them  with  lively  joy,  and 
there  was  much  reason  to  fear  that  they  would  support 
the  attempts  of  the  besiegers  without  by  exciting  a  tumult 
within.  In  this  perplexity  the  Elector  addressed  the 
most  pressing  entreaties  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Duke  of 
Friedland  to  assist  him,  were  it  only  with  five  thousand 
men.  Seven  messengers  in  succession  were  despatched 
by  Ferdinand  to  Wallenstein,  who  promised  immediate 
succors,  and  even  announced  to  the  Elector  the  near 
advance  of  twelve  thousand  men  under  Gallas,  but  at 
the  same  time  forbade  that  general,  under  pain  of  death, 
to  march.  Meanwhile  the  Bavarian  commandant  of  Rat- 
isbon, in  the  hope  of  speedy  assistance,  made  the  best 
preparations  for  defence,  armed  the  Roman  Catholic 
peasants,  disarmed  and  carefully  watched  the  Protestant 
citizens  lest  they  should  attempt  any  hostile  design 
against  the  garrison.  But  as  no  relief  arrived,  and  the 
enemy's  artillery  incessantly  battered  the  walls,  he  con- 
sulted his  own  safety  and  that  of  the  garrison  by  an  hon- 


290  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

orable  capitulation,  and  abandoned  the  Bavarian  officials 
and  ecclesiastics  to  the  conqueror's  mercy. 

The  possession  of  Ratisbon  enlarged  the  projects  of 
the  duke,  and  Bavaria  itself  now  appeared  too  narrow  a 
field  for  his  bold  designs.  He  determined  to  penetrate 
to  the  frontiers  of  Austria,  to  arm  the  Protestant  peas- 
antry against  the  Emperor,  and  restore  to  them  their 
religious  liberty.  He  had  already  taken  Straubingen, 
while  another  Swedish  army  was  advancing  successfully 
along  the  nortliern  bank  of  the  Danube.  At  the  head  of 
his  Swedes,  bidding  defiance  to  the  severity  of  the 
weather,  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Iser,  which  he 
passed  in  the  presence  of  the  Bavarian  General  Werth, 
who  was  encamped  on  that  river.  Passau  and  Lintz 
trembled  for  their  fate ;  the  terrified  Emperor  redoubled 
his  entreaties  and  commands  to  Wallenstein  to  hasten 
with  all  speed  to  the  relief  of  the  hard-pressed  Bavarians. 
But  here  the  victorious  Bernard  of  his  own  accord 
checked  his  career  of  conquest.  Having  in  front  of  him 
the  river  Inn,  guarded  by  a  number  of  strong  fortresses, 
and  behind  him  two  hostile  armies,  a  disaffected  country, 
and  the  river  Iser,  while  his  rear  was  covered  by  no  ten- 
able position,  and  no  intrenchment  could  be  made  in  the 
frozen  ground ;  and  threatened  by  the  whole  force  of 
Wallenstein,  who  had  at  last  resolved  to  march  to  the 
Danube,  by  a  timely  retreat  he  escaped  the  danger  of 
being  cut  off  from  Ratisbon  and  surrounded  by  the 
enemy.  He  hastened  across  the  Iser  to  the  Danube  to 
defend  the  conquests  he  had  made  in  the  Upper  Palatin- 
ate against  Wallenstein,  and  fully  resolved  not  to  decline 
a  battle,  if  necessary,  with  that  general.  But  Wallen- 
stein, who  was  not  disposed  for  any  great  exploits  on  the 
Danube,  did  not  wait  for  his  approach,  and  before  the 
Bavarians  could  congratulate  themselves  on  his  arrival 
he  suddenly  withdrew  again  into  Bohemia.  The  duke 
thus  ended  his  victorious  campaign,  and  allowed  his 
troops  their  well-earned  repose  in  winter  quarters  upon 
an  enemy's  country. 

While  in  Swabia  the  war  was  thus  successfully  con- 
ducted by  Gustavus  Horn,  and  on  the  Upper  and  Lower 
Rhine  by  the  Palatine  of  Birkenfeld,  General  Baudissen, 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  291 

and  tlie  Rhinegrave,  Otto  Louis,  and  by  Duke  Bernard  on 
the  Danube,  tlie  reputation  of  the  Swedish  anus  was  as 
gloriously  sustained  in  Lower  Saxony  and  Westphalia  by 
the  Duke  of  Lunenburg  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  Cas- 
sel.  The  fortress  of  Hamel  was  taken  by  Duke  George, 
after  a  brave  defence,  and  a  brilliant  victory  obtained  over 
the  imj>erial  General  Gronsfeld  by  the  united  Swedish 
and  Hessian  armies  near  Oldendorf.  Count  Wasaburg, 
a  natural  son  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  showed  liimself  in 
this  battle  worthy  of  his  descent.  Sixteen  pieces  of  can- 
non, the  whole  baggage  of  the  Imperialists,  together  with 
seventy-four  colors,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes ; 
three  thousand  of  the  enemy  perished  on  the  field,  and 
nearly  the  same  number  were  taken  prisoners.  The  town 
of  Osnaburg  surrendered  to  the  Swedish  Colonel  Knyp- 
hausen,  and  Paderborn  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  Buckeburg,  a  very  important  place  for 
the  Swedes,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Imperialists.  The 
Swedish  banners  were  victoi-ious  in  almost  every  quarter 
of  Germany;  and  the  year  after  the  death  of  Gustavus 
left  no  trace  of  the  loss  which  had  been  sustained  in  the 
person  of  that  great  leader. 

In  a  review  of  the  important  events  which  signalized 
the  campaign  of  1633  the  inactivity  of  a  man  of  whom 
the  highest  expectations  had  been  foi'med  justly  excites 
astonishment.  Among  all  the  generals  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  this  campaign  none  could  be  compared 
with  Wallenstein  in  experience,  talents,  and  reputation ; 
and  yet  after  the  battle  of  Lutzen  we  lose  sight  of  him 
entirely.  The  fall  of  his  great  rival  had  left  the  whole 
theatre  of  glory  open  to  him  ;  all  Europe  was  now  atten- 
tively awaiting  those  exploits  which  should  efface  the 
remembrance  of  his  defeat  and  still  prove  to  the  world 
his  military  superiority.  Nevertheless,  he  continued  inac- 
tive in  Bohemia,  while  the  Emperor's  losses  in  Bavaria, 
Lower  Saxony,  and  the  Rhine  pressingly  called  for  his 
presence  —  a  conduct  equally  unintelligible  to  friend  and 
foe  —  the  terror,  and  at  the  same  time  the  last  hope  of 
the  Emperor.  After  the  defeat  of  Lutzen  he  had  hastened 
into  Bohemia,  where  he  instituted  the  strictest  inquiry 
into  the  conduct  of  his  officers  in  that  battle.    Those  whom 


292  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

the  council  of  war  declared  guilty  of  misconduct  were 
put  to  death  without  mercy,  tliose  who  had  behaved  with 
bravery  rewarded  with  princely  munificence,  and  the 
memory  of  the  dead  honored  by  splendid  monuments. 
During  the  winter  he  oppressed  the  imperial  provinces  by 
enormous  contributions,  and  exhausted  the  Austrian  terri- 
tories by  his  winter  quarters,  which  he  purposely  avoided 
taking  up  in  an  enemy's  country.  And  in  the  spring  of 
1G33,  instead  of  being  the  first  to  open  the  campaign  with 
this  well-chosen  and  well-appointed  army,  and  to  make  a 
worthy  display  of  his  great  abilities,  he  was  the  last  who 
appeared  in  the  field ;  and  even  then  it  was  an  hereditary 
province  of  Austria  which  he  selected  as  the  seat  of  war. 
Of  all  the  Austrian  provinces  Silesia  was  most  exposed 
to  danger.  Three  different  armies,  a  Swedish  under 
Count  Thurn,  a  Saxon  under  Arnheim  and  the  Duke  of 
Lauenburg,  and  one  of  Brandenburg  under  Borgsdorf, 
had  at  the  same  time  carried  the  war  into  this  country  ; 
they  had  already  taken  possession  of  the  most  important 
places,  and  even  Breslau  had  embraced  the  cause  of  the 
allies.  But  this  crowd  of  commanders  and  armies  was 
the  very  means  of  saving  this  province  to  the  Emperor; 
for  the  jealousy  of  the  generals,  and  the  mutual  hatred  of 
the  Saxons  and  the  Sw-edes,  never  allowed  them  to  act 
with  unanimity.  Arnheim  and  Thurn  contended  for  the 
chief  command  ;  the  troops  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony 
combined  against  the  Swedes,  whom  they  looked  upon  as 
troublesome  strangers  who  ought  to  be  got  rid  of  as  soon 
as  possible.  The  Saxons,  on  the  contrary,  lived  on  a  very 
intimate  footing  with  the  Imperialists,  and  the  officers  of 
both  these  hostile  armies  often  visited  and  entertained 
each  other.  The  Imperialists  were  allowed  to  remove 
their  property  without  hinderance,  and  many  did  not  affect 
to  conceal  that  they  had  received  large  sums  from  Vienna. 
Among  such  equivocal  allies  the  Swedes  saw  themselves 
sold  and  betrayed ;  and  any  great  enterprise  was  out  of 
the  question  while  so  bad  an  understanding  prevailed  be- 
tween the  troops.  General  Arnheim,  too,  was  absent  the 
greater  part  of  the  time ;  and  when  he  at  last  returned 
Wallenstein  was  fast  approaching  the  frontiers  with  a 
formidable  force. 


THE   THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR.  293 

His  army  amounted  to  forty  thousand  men,  while  to 
oppose  him  the  alUes  had  only  twenty-four  thousand. 
They  nevertheless  resolved  to  give  him  battle,  and 
marched  to  Munsterberg,  where  he  had  formed  an  in- 
trenched camp.  But  Wallenstein  remained  inactive  for 
eight  days ;  he  then  left  his  intrenchments  and  marched 
slowly  and  with  composure  to  the  enemy's  camp.  But 
even  after  quitting  his  position,  and  when  the  enemy,  em- 
boldened by  his  past  delay,  manfully  prepared  to  receive 
him,  he  declined  the  opportunity  of  fighting.  The 
caution  with  which  he  avoided  a  battle  was  imputed  to 
fear ;  but  the  well-established  reputation  of  Wallenstein 
enabled  him  to  despise  this  suspicion.  The  vanity  of 
the  allies  allowed  them  not  to  see  that  he  purposely 
saved  them  a  defeat  because  a  victory  at  that  time  would 
not  have  served  his  own  ends.  To  convince  them  of  his 
superior  power,  and  that  his  inactivity  proceeded  not 
from  any  fear  of  them,  he  put  to  death  the  commander 
of  a  castle  that  fell  into  his  hands  because  he  had  refused 
at  once  to  surrender  an  imtenable  place. 

For  nine  days  did  the  two  armies  remain  within 
musket-shot  of  each  other,  when  Count  Terzky,  from  the 
camp  of  the  Imperialists,  appeared  with  a  trumpeter  in 
that  of  the  allies  inviting  General  Arnheim  to  a  confer- 
ence. The  purport  was  that  Wallenstein,  notwithstand- 
ing his  superiority,  was  willing  to  agree  to  a  cessation  of 
arms  for  six  weeks.  "  He  was  come,"  he  said,  "  to  con- 
clude a  lasting  peace  with  the  Swedes,  and  with  the 
princes  of  the  empire,  to  pay  the  soldiers,  and  to  satisfy 
every  one.  All  this  was  in  his  power ;  and  if  the  Aus- 
trian court  hesitated  to  confirm  his  agreement  he  would 
unite  with  the  allies,  and  (as  he  privately  whispered  to 
Arnheim)  hunt  the  Emperor  to  the  devil."  At  the  sec- 
ond conference  he  expressed  himself  still  more  plainly  to 
Count  Thurn.  "All  the  privileges  of  the  Bohemians," 
he  engaged,  "should  be  confirmed  anew,  the  exiles  re- 
called and  restored  to  their  estates,  and  he  himself  would 
be  the  first  to  resign  his  share  of  them.  The  Jesuits,  as 
the  authors  of  all  past  grievances,  should  be  banished, 
the  Swedish  crown  indemnified  by  stated  payments,  and 
ail  the  superfluous  troops  on  both  sides  employed  against 


294  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

the  Turks."  The  last  article  explahied  the  whole  mys- 
tery. "  If,"  he  continued,  "  he  should  obtain  the  crown 
of  Bohemia  all  the  exiles  would  have  reason  to  applaud 
his  generosity ;  perfect  toleration  of  religions  should  be 
established  within  the  kingdom,  the  Palatine  family  be 
reinstated  in  its  rights,  and  he  would  accept  the  Mar- 
gi-aviate  of  Moravia  as  a  compensation  for  Mecklenburg. 
The  allied  armies  would  then,  under  his  command,  ad- 
vance upon  Vienna,  and,  sword  in  hand,  compel  the 
Emperor  to  ratify  the  treaty." 

Thus  was  the  veil  at  last  removed  from  the  schemes 
over  which  he  had  brooded  for  years  in  mysterious 
silence.  Every  circumstance  now  convinced  him  that 
not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost  in  its  execution.  Nothing 
but  a  blind  confidence  in  the  good  fortune  and  military 
genius  of  the  Duke  of  Friedland  had  induced  the  Em- 
peror, in  the  face  of  the  remonstrances  of  Bavaria  and 
Spain,  and  at  the  expense  of  his  own  reputation,  to  con- 
fer upon  this  imperious  leader  such  an  unlimited  com- 
mand. But  this  belief  in  Wallenstein's  being  invincible 
had  been  much  weakened  by  the  inaction,  and  almost 
entirely  overthrown  by  the  defeat  at  Lutzen.  His  ene- 
mies at  the  imperial  court  now  renewed  their  intrigues ; 
and  the  Emperor's  disappointment  at  the  failure  of  his 
hopes  procured  for  their  remonstrances  a  favorable  recep- 
tion. Wallenstein's  whole  conduct  was  now  reviewed  with 
the  most  malicious  criticism;  his  ambitious  haughtiness, 
his  disobedience  to  the  Emperor's  orders,  were  recalled  to 
the  recollection  of  that  jealous  prince,  as  well  as  the  com- 
plaints of  the  Austrian  subjects  against  his  boundless 
oppression ;  his  fidelity  was  questioned,  and  alarming 
hints  thrown  out  as  to  his  secret  views.  These  insinua- 
tions, which  the  conduct  of  the  duke  seemed  but  too  well 
to  justify,  failed  not  to  make  a  deep  impression  on  Fer- 
dinand ;  but  the  step  had  been  taken,  and  the  great  power 
with  which  Wallenstein  had  been  invested  could  not  be 
taken  from  him  without  danger.  Insensibly  to  diminish 
that  power  was  the  only  course  that  now  remained,  and 
to  effect  this  it  must  in  the  first  place  be  divided ;  but, 
above  all,  the  Emperor's  present  dependence  on  the  good- 
will of  his  general  put  an  end  to.     But  even  this  right 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR.  295 

had  been  resigned  in  his  engagement  with  Wallen stein, 
and  tlie  Emperor's  own  handwriting  secured  him  against 
every  attempt  to  unite  another  general  with  him  in  tlie 
command  or  to  exercise  any  immediate  act  of  authority 
over  the  troops.  As  this  disadvantageous  contract  could 
neitlier  be  kept  nor  broken  recourse  was  had  to  artifice. 
Wallenstein  was  Imperial  Generalissimo  in  Germany, 
but  liis  command  extended  no  further,  and  he  could  not 
presume  to  exercise  any  authority  over  a  foreign  army. 
A  Spanish  army  was  accordingly  raised  in  Milan  and 
marched  into  Germany  under  a  Spanish  general.  Wal- 
lenstein now  ceased  to  be  indispensable  because  he  was 
no  longer  supreme,  and  in  case  of  necessity  the  Emperor 
was  now  provided  with  the  means  of  support  even  against 
him. 

The  duke  quickly  and  deeply  felt  whence  this  blow 
came  and  whither  it  was  aimed.  In  vain  did  he  protest 
against  this  violation  of  the  compact  to  the  Cardinal 
Infante ;  the  Italian  army  continued  its  march  and  he 
Avas  forced  to  detach  General  Altringer  to  join  it  with  a 
reinforcement.  He  took  care,  indeed,  so  closely  to  fetter 
the  latter  as  to  prevent  the  Italian  army  from  acquiring 
any  great  reputation  in  Alsace  and  Swabia;  but  this  bold 
step  of  the  court  awakened  him  from  his  security,  and 
warned  him  of  the  approach  of  danger.  That  he  might 
not  a  second  time  be  deprived  of  his  command  and  lose  the 
fruit  of  all  his  labors  he  must  accelerate  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  lono-meditated  designs.  He  secured  the 
attachment  of  his  troops  by  removmg  the  doubtful  ofii- 
cers  and  by  his  liberality  to  the  rest.  He  had  sacrificed 
to  the  welfare  of  the  army  every  other  order  in  the  state, 
every  consideration  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  there- 
fore he  reckoned  upon  their  gratitude.  At  the  very 
moment  when  he  meditated  an  unparalleled  act  of  ingrati- 
tude against  the  author  of  his  own  good  fortune  lie 
founded  all  his  hopes  upon  the  gratitude  which  was  due 
to  himself. 

The  leaders  of  the  Silesian  armies  had  no  authority 
from  their  principals  to  consent  on  their  own  discretion 
to  such  important  proposals  as  those  of  Wallenstein,  and 
they  did  not  even  feel  themselves  warranted  in  granting 


296  THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'    WAK. 

for  more  than  a  fortnight  the  cessation  of  hostilities 
which  he  demanded.  Before  the  duke  disclosed  his 
designs  to  Sweden  and  Saxony  he  had  deemed  it  advis- 
able to  secure  the  sanction  of  France  to  his  bold  under- 
taking. For  this  purpose  a  secret  negotiation  had  been 
carried  on  with  the  greatest  possible  caution  and  distrust 
by  Count  Kinsky  with  Feuquieres,  the  French  ambassador 
at  Dresden,  and  had  terminated  according  to  his  wishes. 
Feuquieres  received  orders  from  his  court  to  promise 
every  assistance  on  the  part  of  France,  and  to  offer  the 
duke  a  considerable  pecuniary  aid  in  case  of  need. 

But  it  was  this  excessive  caution  to  secure  himself  on 
all  sides  that  led  to  his  ruin.  The  French  ambassador 
with  astonishment  discovered  that  a  plan  which,  more 
than  any  other,  required  secrecy,  had  been  communicated 
to  the  Swedes  and  the  Saxons.  And  yet  it  was  generally 
known  that  the  Saxon  ministry  was  in  the  interests  of 
the  Emperor,  and  on,  the  other  hand,  the  conditions 
offered  to  the  Swedes  fell  too  far  short  of  their  expecta- 
tions to  be  likely  to  be  accepted.  Feuquieres  therefore 
could  not  believe  that  the  duke  could  be  serious  in  calcu- 
lating upon  the  aid  of  the  latter  and  the  silence  of  the 
former.  He  communicated  accordingly  his  doubts  and 
anxieties  to  the  Swedish  chancellor,  who  equally  dis- 
trusted the  views  of  Wallenstein  and  disliked  his  plans. 
Although  it  was  no  secret  to  Oxenstiern  that  the  duke 
had  formerly  entered  into  a  similar  negotiation  with  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  he  could  not  credit  the  possibility  of 
inducing  a  whole  army  to  revolt,  and  of  his  extravagant 
promises.  So  daring  a  design,  and  such  imprudent  con- 
duct, seemed  not  to  be  consistent  with  the  duke's  reserved 
and  suspicious  temper,  and  he  was  the  more  inclined  to 
consider  the  whole  as  the  result  of  dissimulation  and 
treachery  because  he  had  less  reason  to  doubt  his  pru- 
dence than  his  honesty. 

Oxenstiern's  doubts  at  last  affected  Arnheim  himself, 
who,  in  full  confidence  in  Wallenstein's  sincerity,  had  re- 
paired to  the  chancellor  at  Gelnhausen  to  persuade  him 
to  lend  some  of  his  best  regiments  to  the  duke  to  aid  him 
in  the  execution  of  the  plan.  They  began  to  suspect  that 
the  whole  proposal  was  only  a  snare  to  disarm  the  allies, 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  297 

and  to  betray  the  flower  of  their  troops  into  the  hands  of 
the  Emperor.  Wallenstein's  well-known  character  did 
not  contradict  the  suspicion,  and  the  inconsistencies  in 
which  he  afterwards  involved  himself  entirely  destroyed 
all  confidence  in  his  sincerity.  While  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  draw  the  Swedes  into  this  alliance,  and  requiring 
the  help  of  their  best  troops,  he  declared  to  Arnheim  that 
they  must  begin  with  expelling  the  Swedes  from  the 
empire;  and  while  the  Saxon  officers,  relying  upon  the 
security  of  the  truce,  repaired  in  great  numbers  to  his 
camp  he  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  seize  them. 
He  was  the  first  to  break  the  truce,  which  some  months 
afterwards  he  renewed,  though  not  without  great  diffi- 
culty. All  confidence  in  his  sincerity  was  lost ;  his  whole 
conduct  was  recjarded  as  a  tissue  of  deceit  and  low  cun- 
ning,  devised  to  weaken  the  allies  and  repair  his  own 
strength.  This  indeed  he  actually  did  effect,  as  his  own 
army  daily  augmented,  while  that  of  the  allies  was  re- 
duced nearly  one-half  by  desertion  and  bad  provisions. 
But  he  did  not  make  that  use  of  his  superiority  which 
Vienna  expected.  When  all  men  Avere  looking  for  a  deci- 
sive blow  to  be  struck  he  suddenly  renewed  -the  negotia- 
tions ;  and  when  the  truce  lulled  the  allies  into  security  he 
as  suddenly  recommenced  hostilities.  All  these  contradic- 
tions arose  out  of  the  double  and  irreconcilable  desisrns  to 

CD 

ruin  at  once  the  Emperor  and  tlie  Swedes,  and  to  con- 
clude a  separate  peace  witli  the  Saxons. 

Impatient  at  the  ill-success  of  his  negotiations  he  at 
last  determined  to  display  his  strength  ;  the  more  so  as 
the  pressing  distress  M'ithin  the  empire,  and  the  growing 
dissatisfaction  of  the  imperial  court,  admitted  not  of  his 
making  any  longer  delay.  Before  the  last  cessation  of 
hostilities  General  Hoik  from  Bohemia  had  attacked  the 
circle  of  Meissen,  laid  waste  everything  on  his  route  Avith 
fire  and  sword,  driven  the  Elector  into  his  fortresses, 
and  taken  the  town  of  Leijizig.  But  the  truce  in  Silesia 
put  a  period  to  his  ravages,  and  the  consequences  of  his 
excesses  brought  him  to  the  grave  at  Adorf.  As  soon  as 
hostilities  Avere  recommenced  Wallenstein  made  a  move- 
ment as  if  he  designed  to  penetrate  through  Lusatia  into 
Saxony,  and  circulated  the  report  that  Piccolomini  had 


298  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

already  invaded  that  country.  Arnheim  immediately 
broke  up  his  camp  in  Silesia  to  follow  him,  and  hastened 
to  the  assistance  of  the  Electorate.  By  this  means  the 
Swedes  were  left  exposed,  who  were  encamped  in  small 
force  under  Count  Thurn  at  Steinau,  on  the  Oder,  and 
this  was  exactly  what  Wallenstein  desired.  He  allowed 
the^  Saxon  general  to  advance  sixteen  miles  towards 
Meissan,  and  then,  suddenly  turning  towards  the  Oder, 
surprised  the  Swedish  army  in  the  most  complete  security. 
Their  cavalry  were  first  beaten  by  General  Schafgotsch, 
who  was  sent  against  them,  and  the  infantry  completely 
surrounded  at  Steinau  by  the  duke's  army,  which  followed. 
Wallenstein  gave  Count  Thurn  half  an  hour  to  deliberate 
whether  he  would  defend  himself  M-ith  two  thousand  five 
hundred  men  against  more  than  twenty  thousand,  or 
surrender  at  discretion.  But  there  was  no  room  for  de- 
liberation. The  army  surrendered,  and  the  most  com- 
plete victory  was  obtained  without  bloodshed.  Colors, 
baggage,  and  artillery  all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors, 
the  officers  were  taken  into  custody,  the  privates  drafted 
into  the  army  of  Wallenstein.  And  now  at  last,  after  a 
banishment  of  fourteen  years,  after  numberless  changes  of 
fortune,  the  author  of  the  Bohemian  insurrection,  and  the 
remote  origin  of  this  destructive  war,  the  notorious  Count 
Tluirn,  was  in  the  power  of  his  enemies.  With  blood- 
thirsty impatience  the  arrival  of  this  great  criminal  Avas 
looked  for  in  Vienna,  where  they  already  anticipated 
the  malicious  triumph  of  sacrificing  so  distinguished  a 
victim  to  public  justice.  But  to  deprive  the  Jesuits  of 
this  pleasure  was  still  a  sweeter  triumph  to  Wallenstein, 
and  Thurn  was  set  at  liberty.  Fortunately  for  him  he 
knew  more  than  it  was  prudent  to  have  divulged  in 
Vienna,  and  his  enemies  were  also  those  of  Wallenstein. 
A  defeat  might  have  been  forgiven  in  Vienna,  but  this 
disappointment  of  their  hopes  they  could  not  pardon. 
"What  should  I  have  done  with  this  madman?"  he 
writes  with  a  malicious  sneer  to  the  minister  who  called 
him  to  account  for  this  unseasonable  magnanimity. 
"Would  to  Heaven  the  enemy  had  no  generals  but  such 
as  he.  At  the  head  of  the  Swedish  army  he  will  render 
us  much  better  service  than  in  j^rison." 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  299 

The  victory  of  Steinau  was  followed  by  tlie  caiiture  of 
Liegnitz,  Grossglogau,  and  even  of  Frankfort  on  the 
Oder.  Schafgotsch,  who  remained  in  Silesia  to  complete 
the  subjugation  of  that  ]>rovince,  blockaded  Breig,  and 
threatened  Breslau,  though  in  vain,  as  that  free  town  was 
jealous  of  its  privileges  and  devoted  to  the  Swedes. 
Colonels  Illo  and  Goetz  were  ordered  by  Wallenstein  to 
the  Warta,  to  push  forward  into  Pomerania,  and  to  the 
coasts  of  the  Baltic,  and  actually  obtained  possession  of 
Landsberg,  the  key  of  Pomerania.  While  thus  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  and  the  Duke  of  Pomerania  were 
made  to  tremble  for  their  dominions,  Wallenstein  himself 
with  the  remainder  of  his  army  burst  suddenly  into 
Lusatia,  where  he  took  Goerlitz  by  storm,  and  forced 
Bautzen  to  surrender.  But  his  object  was  merely  to 
alarm  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  not  to  follow  up  the  ad- 
vantages already  obtained  ;  and  therefore,  even  with  the 
sword  in  his  hand,  he  continued  his  negotiations  for  j^eace 
with  Brandenburg  and  Saxony,  but  with  no  better  suc- 
cess than  before,  as  the  inconsistencies  of  his  conduct  had 
destroyed  all  confidence  in  his  sincerity.  He  was  there- 
fore on  the  point  of  turning  his  whole  force  in  earnest 
against  the  Ttnfortunate  Saxons,  and  effecting  his  object 
by  force  of  arms,  when  circumstances  compelled  him  to 
leave  these  territories.  The  conquests  of  Duke  Bernard 
upon  the  Danube,  which  threatened  Austria  itself  with 
immediate  danger,  ui'gently  demanded  his  presence  in 
Bavaria ;  and  tlie  expulsion  of  the  Saxons  and  Swedes 
from  Silesia  deprived  him  of  every  pretext  for  longer 
resisting  the  imperial  orders  and  leaving  the  Elector  of 
Bavaria  without  assistance.  With  his  main  body,  there- 
fore, he  immediately  set  out  for  the  Upper  Palatinate, 
and  his  retreat  freed  Upi^er  Saxony  forever  of  this  formi- 
dable enemy. 

So  long  as  was  possible  he  had  delayed  to  move  to  the 
rescue  of  Bavaria,  and  on  every  pretext  evaded  the 
commands  of  the  Emperor.  He  had,  indeed,  after  reiter- 
ated remonstrances,  despatched  from  Bohemia  a  rein- 
forcement of  some  regiments  to  Count  Altringer,  who 
was  defending  the  Lech  and  the  Danube  against  Horn 
and    Bernard,  but  under  the   express   condition  of  his 


300  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR. 

acting  merely  on  the  defensive.  He  referred  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Elector,  whenever  they  applied  to  him  for 
aid,  to  Altringer,  who,  as  he  publicly  gave  out,  had  re- 
ceived unlimited  powers ;  secretly,  however,  he  tied  up 
his  hands  by  the  strictest  injunctions,  and  even  threatened 
him  with  death  if  he  exceeded  his  orders.  When  Duke 
Bernard  had  appeared  before  Ratisbon,  and  the  Emperor 
as  Avell  as  the  Elector  rej^eated  still  more  urgently  their 
demand  for  succor,  he  pretended  he  was  about  to  de- 
spatch General  Gallas  with  a  considerable  army  to  the 
Danube ;  but  this  movement  also  Avas  delayed,  and  Ratis- 
bon, Straubing,  and  Cham,  as  well  as  the  Bishopric  of 
Eichstadt,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes.  "When  at 
last  he  could  no  longer  neglect  the  orders  of  the  court 
he  marched  slowly  toward  the  Bavarian  frontier,  where 
he  invested  the  town  of  Cham,  Avhich  had  been  taken 
by  the  Swedes.  But  no  sooner  did  he  learn  that  on 
the  Swedish  side  a  diversion  was  contemplated  by  an 
inroad  of  the  Saxons  into  Bohemia  than  he  availed  him- 
self of  the  report  as  a  pretext  for  immediately  retreating 
into  that  kingdom.  Every  consideration,  he  urged,  must 
be  postponed  to  the  defence  and  preservation  of  the 
hereditary  dominions  of  the  Emperor;  and  on  this  plea 
he  remained  firmly  fixed  in  Bohemia,  which  he  guarded 
as  if  it  had  been  his  own  property.  And  when  the 
Emperor  laid  upon  him  his  commands  to  move  towards 
the  Danube,  and  prevent  the  Duke  of  Weimar  from 
establishing  himself  in  so  dangerous  a  position  on  the 
frontiers  of  Austria,  Wallenstein  thought  jjroper  to  con- 
clude the  campaign  a  second  time,  and  quartered  his 
troops  for  the  winter  in  this  exhausted  kingdom. 

Such  continued  insolence  and  unexampled  contempt 
of  the  imperial  orders,  as  well  as  obvious  neglect  of  the 
common  cause,  joined  to  his  equivocal  behavior  towards 
the  enemy,  tended  at  last  to  convince  the  Emperor  of  the 
truth  of  those  unfavorable  reports  with  regard  to  the 
duke  which  were  current  through  Germany.  The  lat- 
ter had  for  a  long  time  succeeded  in  glozing  over  his 
criminal  correspondence  with  the  enemy,  and  persuading 
the  Emperor,  still  prepossessed  in  his  favor,  that  the  sole 
object  of  his  secret  conferences  was  to  obtain  peace  for 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  301 

Germany.  But,  impenetrable  as  he  himself  believed  his 
proceedings  to  be,  in  the  coui'se  of  his  conduct  enough 
transpired  to  justify  the  insinuations  with  which  his  rivals 
incessantly  loaded  the  ear  of  the  Emperor.  In  order  to 
satisfy  himself  of  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  these  rumors 
Ferdinand  had  already,  at  different  times,  sent  spies 
into  Wallenstein's  camp  ;  but  as  the  duke  took  the  pre- 
caution never  to  commit  anything  in  writing  they  re- 
turned witli  nothing  but  conjectures.  But  when  at  last 
those  ministers  who  had  formerly  been  his  champions  at 
the  court,  in  consequence  of  their  estates  not  being 
exempted  by  Wallenstein  from  the  general  exactions, 
joined  his  enemies ;  when  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  tln-eat- 
ened,  in  case  of  Wallenstein  being  any  longer  retained 
in  the  supreme  command,  to  unite  with  the  Swedes ; 
when  the  Spanish  ambassador  insisted  on  his  dismissal, 
and  threatened  in  case  of  refusal  to  withdraw  the  subsi- 
dies furnished  by  his  crown,  the  Emperor  found  himself 
a  second  time  compelled  to  deprive  him  of  the  command. 

The  Emperor's  authoritative  and  direct  interference 
with  the  army  soon  convinced  the  duke  that  the  com- 
pact Avith  himself  was  regarded  as  at  an  end,  and  that 
his  dismissal  was  inevitable.  One  of  his  inferior  generals 
in  Austria,  whom  he  had  forbidden  under  pain  of  death 
to  obey  the  orders  of  the  court,  received  the  positive 
commands  of  the  Emperor  to  join  the  Elector  of  Bavaria ; 
and  Wallenstein  himself  was  imperiously  ordered  to  send 
some  regiments  to  reinforce  the  army  of  the  Cardinal 
Infante,  who  was  on  his  march  from  Italy.  All  these 
measures  convinced  him  that  the  plan  Avas  finally  arranged 
to  disarm  him  by  degrees,  and  at  once,  when  he  was  weak 
and  defenceless,  to  complete  his  ruin. 

In  self-defence  must  lie  now  hasten  to  carry  into  execu- 
tion the  plans  Avhich  he  had  originally  formed  only  with 
the  view  of  aggrandizement.  He  had  delayed  too  long, 
either  because  the  favorable  configuration  of  the  stars 
had  not  yet  presented  itself,  or,  as  he  used  to  say,  to 
check  the  impatience  of  his  friends,  because  the  time  teas 
not  yet  come.  The  time  even  now  was  not  come;  but 
the  pressure  of  circumstances  no  longer  allowed  him  to 
await  the  favor  of  the  stars.     The  first  step  was  to  assure 


302  THE   THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

himself  of  the  sentiments  of  liis  principal  officers,  and 
then  to  try  the  attachment  of  the  army,  which  he  had 
so  long  confidently  reckoned  on.  Three  of  them,  Colonels 
Kinsley,  Terzky,  and  lUo,  had  long  been  in  his  secrets, 
and  the  two  first  were  further  united  to  his  interests  by 
the  ties  of  relationship.  The  same  wild  ambition,  the 
same  bitter  hatred  of  the  government,  and  the  hope  of 
enormous  rewards,  bound  them  in  the  closest  manner  to 
Wallenstein,  who,  to  increase  the  number  of  his  adherents, 
could  stoop  to  the  lowest  means.  He  had  once  advised 
Colonel  Illo  to  solicit  in  Vienna  tlie  title  of  count,  and 
had  promised  to  back  his  application  with  his  powerful 
mediation.  But  he  secretly  wrote  to  tlie  ministry,  advis- 
ing them  to  refuse  his  request,  as  to  grant  it  would  give 
rise  to  similar  demands  from  others  whose  services  and 
claims  Avere  equal  to  his.  On  Illo's  return  to  the  camp 
"Wallenstein  immediatelv  demanded  to  know  the  success 
of  his  mission ;  and  when  informed  by  Illo  of  its  failure, 
he  broke  out  into  the  bitterest  complaints  against  the 
court.  "Thus,"  said  he,  "are  our  faithful  services  re- 
warded. J\[y  recommendation  is  disregarded,  and  your 
merit  denied  so  trifling  a  re^vard  !  Wlio  Avould  any  longer 
devote  his  services  to  so  ungrateful  a  master?  No,  for 
my  part,  I  am  henceforth  the  determined  foe  of  Austria." 
Illo  agreed  with  him,  and  a  close  alliance  was  cemented 
between  them. 

But  what  was  known  to  these  three  confidants  of  the 
duke  was  long  an  impenetrable  secret  to  the  rest ;  and 
the  confidence  with  which  Wallenstein  spoke  of  the  devo- 
tion of  his  oflicers  was  founded  merely  on  the  favors  he 
had  lavished  on  them,  and  on  their  known  dissatisfaction 
with  the  court.  But  this  vague  presumption  must  be 
converted  into  certainty  before  he  could  venture  to  lay 
aside  the  mask  or  take  any  open  step  against  the  Em- 
peror. Count  Piccolomini,  wlio  had  distinguished  him- 
self by  his  unparalleled  bravery  at  Lutzen,  was  the  first 
whose  fidelity  he  put  to  the  proof.  He  had  he  thought 
gained  the  attachment  of  this  general  by  large  presents, 
and  preferred  him  to  all  others  because  born  under  the 
same  constellations  with  himself.  He  disclosed  to  him 
that  in  consequence  of  tlie  Emperor's  ingratitude,  and  the 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    AVAR.  303 

near  approach  of  his  own  danger,  he  had  irrevocably 
determined  entirely  to  abandon  the  party  of  Austria,  to 
join  the  enemy  with  the  best  part  of  his  army,  and  to 
make  Avar  ujjon  the  House  of  Austria  on  all  sides  of  its 
dominions  till  he  had  wholly  extirj^ated  it.  In  the 
execution  of  this  plan  he  principally  reckoned  on  the 
services  of  Piccolomini,  and  had  beforehand  promised 
him  the  greatest  rewards.  When  the  latter,  to  conceal 
his  amazement  at  this  extraordinary  communication, 
spoke  of  the  dangers  and  obstacles  which  would  oppose 
so  hazardous  an  enterprise,  Wallenstein  ridiculed  his 
fears.  "In  si^ch  enterprises,"  he  maintained,  "nothing 
was  difficult  but  the  commencement.  The  stai-s  were 
2:>ropitious  to  him,  the  opportunity  the  best  that  could  be 
wished  for,  and  something  must  always  be  trusted  to 
fortune.  His  resolution  was  taken,  and  if  it  could  not  be 
otherwise  he  would  encounter  the  hazard  at  the  head  of 
a  thousand  horse,"  Piccolomini  was  careful  not  to  excite 
Wallenstein's  suspicions  by  longer  opposition,  and  yielded 
apparently  to  the  force  of  his  reasoning.  Such  was  the 
infatuation  of  the  duke  that,  notwithstanding  the  Avarn- 
ings  of  Count  Terzky,  he  never  doubted  the  sincerity  of 
this  man,  who  lost  not  a  moment  in  communicating  to 
the  court  at  Vienna  this  important  conversation. 

Preparatory  to  taking  the  last  decisive  step  he,  in 
January,  1634,  called  a  meeting  of  all  the  commanders  of 
the  army  at  Pilsen,  whither  he  had  marched  after  his 
retreat  from  Bavaria.  The  Emperor's  recent  orders  to 
spare  his  hereditary  dominions  from  winter  quarterings, 
to  recover  Ratisbon  in  the  middle  of  winter,  and  to 
reduce  the  army  by  a  detachment  of  six  thousand  horse 
to  the  Cardinal  Infante,  were  matters  sufficiently  grave  to 
be  laid  before  a  council  of  Avar ;  and  this  plausible  pretext 
served  to  conceal  from  the  curious  the  real  object  of  the 
meeting.  SAveden  and  Saxony  received  invitations  to  be 
present  in  order  to  treat  Avith  the  Duke  of  Friedland  for 
a  peace ;  to  the  leaders  of  more  distant  armies  written 
communications  Avere  made.  Of  the  commanders  tlius 
summoned  tAventy  appeared  ;  but  three  most  influential, 
Gallas,  Colloredo  and  Altringcr  Avere  absent.  The  duke 
reiterated  his  summons  to  them,  and  in  the  meantime,  in 


304  THE    THIRTY    YEAlls'    WAR. 

expectation  of  their  speedy  arrival,  proceeded  to  execute 
his  designs. 

It  was  no  light  task  that  he  had  to  perform ;  a  noble- 
man, proud,  brave,  and  jealous  of  his  honor  was  to 
declare  himself  capable  of  the  basest  treachery,  in  the 
very  presence  of  those  vi'ho  had  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard him  as  the  representative  of  majesty,  the  judge  of 
their  actions,  and  the  supporter  of  their  laws,  and  to 
show  himself  suddenly  as  a  traitor,  a  cheat,  and  a  rebel. 
It  was  no  easy  task  either  to  shake  to  its  foundations  a 
legitimate  sovereignty,  strengthened  by  time  and  conse- 
crated by  laws  and  religion  ;  to  dissolve  all  the  charms 
of  the  senses  and  the  imagination,  those  formidable 
guardians  of  an  established  throne,  and  to  attempt 
forcibly  to  uproot  those  invincible  feelings  of  duty  which 
plead  so  loudly  and  so  powerfully  in  the  breast  of  the 
subject  in  favor  of  his  sovereign.  But,  blinded  by  the 
splendor  of  a  crown,.  Wallenstein  observed  not  the  preci- 
pice that  yawned  beneath  his  feet ;  and  in  full  reliance 
on  his  own  strength,  the  common  case  with  energetic  and 
daring  minds,  he  stopped  not  to  consider  the  magnitude 
and  the  number  of  the  difficulties  that  opposed  him. 
Wallenstein  saw  nothing  but  an  array,  partly  indifferent 
and  partly  exasperated  against  the  court,  accustomed 
with  a  blind  submission  to  do  homage  to  his  great  name, 
to  bow  to  him  as  their  legislator  and  judge,  and  with 
trembling  reverence  to  follow  his  orders  as  the  decrees  of 
fate.  In  the  extravagant  flatteries  which  were  paid  to 
his  omnipotence,  in  the  bold  abuse  of  the  court  govern- 
ment in  which  a  lawless  soldiery  indulged,  and  which  the 
wild  license  of  the  camp  excused,  he  thought  he  read  the 
sentiments  of  the  ai-my;  and  the  boldness  with  which 
they  were  ready  to  censure  the  monarch's  measures, 
passed  with  him  for  a  readiness  to  renounce  their  alle- 
giance to  a  sovereign  so  little  respected.  But  that  which 
he  had  regarded  as  the  lightest  matter  proved  the  most 
formidable  obstacle  with  which  he  had  to  contend  ;  the 
soldiers'  feelings  of  allegiance  were  the  rock  on  which  his 
liopes  were  wrecked.  Deceived  by  the  profound  respect 
in  which  he  was  held  by  these  lawless  bands,  he  ascribed 
the  whole  to  his  own  personal  greatness,  without  distin- 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  305 

guisliing  how  much  he  owed  to  himself  and  how  much  to  tne 
dignity  witli  whicli  he  was  invested.  All  trembled  before 
him  while  he  exercised  a  legimate  authority,  while  obedi- 
ence to  him  was  a  duty,  and  while  his  consequence  was 
supported  by  the  majesty  of  the  sovereign.  Greatness  in 
and  of  itself  may  excite  terror  and  admiration ;  but  legit- 
imate greatness  alone  can  inspire  reverence  and  submis- 
sion ;  and  of  this  decisive  advantage  he  deprived  himself 
the  instant  he  avowed  himself  a  traitor, 

Field-Marshal  lUo  undertook  to  learn  the  sentiments  of 
the  officers  and  to  prepare  them  for  the  step  which  was 
expected  of  them.  He  began  by  laying  before  them  the 
new  orders  of  the  court  to  the  general  and  the  army ; 
and  by  the  obnoxious  turn  he  skilfully  gave  to  them  he 
found  it  easy  to  excite  the  indignation  of  the  assembly. 
After  this  well-chosen  introduction  he  expatiated  witli 
much  eloquence  upon  the  merits  of  the  army  and  the 
general  and  the  ingratitude  with  which  the  Emperor  was 
accustomed  to  requite  them.  Spanish  influence,  he  main- 
tained, governed  the  court ;  the  ministry  were  in  the  pay 
of  Spain ;  the  Duke  of  Friedland'  alone  had  hitherto 
opposed  this  tyranny,  and  had  thus  drawn  down  upon 
himself  the  deadly  enmity  of  the  Spaniards.  To  remove 
him  from  the  command  or  to  make  away  with  him 
entirely,  he  continued,  had  long  been  the  end  of  their 
desires ;  and  until  they  could  succeed  in  one  or  tlie 
other  they  endeavored  to  abridge  his  power  in  the  field. 
The  command  was  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  King 
of  Hungary  for  no  other  reason  than  the  better  to  promote 
the  Spanish  power  in  Germany;  because  this  prince,  as 
the  ready  instrument  of  foreign  counsels,  might  be  led  at 
pleasure.  'It  was  merely  with  the  view  of  weakening  the 
army  that  the  six  thousand  troops  were  required  for  the 
Cardinal  Infante ;  it  was  solely  for  the  purpose  of  harass- 
ing it  by  a  winter  campaign  that  they  were  now  called 
on  in  this  inhospitable  season  to  undertake  the  recovery 
of  Ratisbon.  The  means  of  subsistence  were  evervwhere 
rendered  difficult,  while  the  Jesuits  and  the  ministry 
enriched  themselves  with  the  sweat  of  the  provinces  and 
squandered  the  money  intended  for  tlie  pav  of  the  troops. 
The  general  abandoned   by  the  court  acknowledges  his 


306  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    "WAR. 

inability  to  keep  his  engagements  to  the  army.  For  all  the 
services  which  for  two-and -twenty  years  he  had  rendered 
the  House  of  Austria;  for  all  the  ditHculties  with  which 
he  had  struggled ;  for  all  the  treasures  of  his  own  which 
lie  had  expended  in  the  imperial  service,  a  second  dis- 
graceful dismissal  awaited  him.  But  he  was  resolved  tlie 
matter  should  not  come  to  this;  he  was  determined 
voluntarily  to  resign  the  command  before  it  should  be 
wrested  from  his  hands;  and  this,  continued  the 
orator,  is  Avhat  through  me  he  now  makes  known  to  his 
officers.  It  was  now  for  them  to  say  whether  it  would  be 
advisable  to  lose  such  a  general.  Let  each  consider  who 
Avas  to  refund  him  the  sums  he  had  expended  in  the 
Emperor's  service,  and  where  he  was  now  to  reap  the 
reward  of  their  bravery  when  he  who  was  their  evidence 
was  removed  from  the  scene." 

A  universal  cry  that  they  Avould  not  allow  their  general 
to  be  taken  from  them  interrupted  the  speaker.  Four 
of  the  principal  officers  were  dej^uted  to  lay  before  him 
the  wish  of  the  assembly,  and  earnestly  to  request  that 
he  would  not  leave 'the  army.  The  duke  made  a  show 
of  resistance  and  only  yielded  after  the  second  dej^uta- 
tion.  This  concession  on  his  side  seemed  to  demand  a 
return  on  theirs ;  as  he  engaged  not  to  quit  the  service 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  tlie  generals,  he 
required  of  them,  on  the  other  hand,  a  written  promise 
to  truly  and  firmly  adhere  to  him,  neither  to  separate 
nor  to  allow  themselves  to  be  separated  from  him,  and 
to  shed  their  last  drop  of  blood  in  his  defence.  Whoever 
should  break  this  covenant  was  to  be  regarded  as  a 
perfidious  traitor,  and  treated  by  the  rest  as  a  common 
enemy.  The  express  condition,  which  was  added,  "  As 
long  as  Wallenstein  shall  emjjloy  the  army  in  the  Em- 
peror's sermce^''  seemed  to  exclude  all  misconception,  and 
none  of  the  assembled  generals  hesitated  at  once  to  accede 
to  a  demand  apparently  so  innocent  and  so  reasonable. 

This  document  was  publicly  read  before  an  entertain- 
ment which  Field-Marshal  lllo  had  expressly  prepared 
for  the  purpose ;  it  M^as  to  be  signed  after  they  rose  from 
table.  The  host  did  his  utmost  to  stupify  his  guests  by 
strong   potations ;  and   it  was   not   until   he   saw   them 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR.  307 

affected  with  the  wine  that  he  had  produced  the  paper 
for  signature.  Most  of  them  wrote  their  names  without 
knowing  what  they  were  subscribing  ;  a  few  only,  more 
curious  or  more  distrustful,  read  the  pajjer  over  again, 
and  discovered  with  astonishment  that  the  clause  "  as  long 
as  Wallenstein  shall  employ  the  army  for  the  Emperor's 
service"  was  omitted.  Illo  had,  in  fact,  artfully  con- 
trived to  substitute  for  the  first  another  copy  in  w^hich 
these  words  were  wanting.  The  trick  was  manifest  and 
many  refused  now  to  sign.  Piccolomini,  who  had  seen 
through  the  whole  cheat,  and  had  been  present  at  this 
scene  merely  Avith  the  view  of  giving  information  of  the 
Avhole  to  the  court,  forgot  himself  so  far  in  his  cups  as  to 
drink  the  Emperor's  health.  But  Count  Terzky  now 
rose  and  declared  that  all  were  perjured  villains  who 
should  recede  from  their  engagement.  Plis  menaces,  the 
idea  of  the  inevital)le  danger  to  which  they  who  resisted 
any  longer  would  be  exposed,  the  example  of  the  rest, 
and  Illo's  rhetoric,  at  last  overcame  their  scruples,  and 
the  paper  was  signed  by  all  without  exception. 

Wallenstein  had  now  effected  his  purpose ;  but  the 
unexpected  resistance  he  had  met  with  from  the  com- 
manders roused  him  at  last  from  the  fond  illusions  in 
which  he  had  hitherto  indulged.  Besides,  most  of  the 
names  were  scrawled  so  illegibly  that  some  deceit  was 
evidently  intended.  But  instead  of  being  recalled  to  his 
discretion  by  this  warning  he  gave  vent  to  liis  injured 
pride  in  undignified  complaints  and  repi'oaches.  He 
assembled  the  generals  the  next  day,  and  undertook 
personally  to  confirm  the  whole  tenor  of  the  agreement 
which  Illo  had  submitted  to  them  the  day  before.  After 
pouring  out  the  bitterest  reproaches  and  abuse  against 
the  court,  he  reminded  them  of  their  opposition  to  the 
proposition  of  the  ])revious  day,  and  declared  that  this 
circumstance  had  induced  him  to  retract  his  own  promise. 
The  generals  Avithdrew  in  silence  and  confusion ;  but 
after  a  short  consultation  in  the  ante-chamber  they  re- 
turned to  apologize  for  their  late  conduct  and  offered  to 
sign  the  paper  anew. 

Xothing  now  remained  but  to  obtain  a  similar  assur- 
ance  from   the   absent  generals,   or,  on  their  refusal,  to 


308  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

seize  their  persons.  Wallenstein  renewed  liis  invitation 
to  them,  and  earnestly  urged  them  to  hasten  tlieir  arrival. 
But  a  rumor  of  the  doinos  at  Pilsen  reached  them  on 
their  journey  and  suddenly  stopped  their  further  pro- 
gress. Altringer,  on  pretence  of  sickness,  remained  in  the 
strong  fortress  of  Frauenberg.  Gal  las  made  his  ap- 
pearance, but  merely  with  the  design  of  better  qualifying 
himself  as  an  eye-witness,  to  keep  the  Emperor  informed 
of  all  Wallenstein's  proceedings.  The  intelligence  which 
he  and  Piccolomini  gave  at  once  converted  the  suspi- 
cions of  the  court  into  an  alarming  certainty.  Similar 
disclosures,  which  Avere  at  the  same  time  made  from  other 
quarters,  left  no  room  for  further  doubt ;  and  the  sudden 
change  of  the  commanders  in  Austria  and  Silesia  ap- 
peared to  be  the  prelude  to  some  important  enterprise. 
The  danger  Avas  pressing  and  the  remedy  must  be  speedy, 
but  the  court  was  unwilling  to  proceed  at  once  to  tiie 
execution  of  the  sentence  till  the  regular  forms  of  justice 
were  complied  with.  Secret  instructions  were  therefore 
issued  to  the  principal  officers,  on  whose  fidelity  reliance 
could  be  placed,  to  seize  the  persons  of  the  Duke  of 
Friedland  and  of  his  two  associates,  Illo  and  Terzky,  and 
keep  them  in  close  confinement  till  they  should  have  an 
opportunity  of  being  heard  and  of  answering  for  their 
conduct ;  but  if  this  could  not  be  accomplished  quietly 
the  public  danger  required  that  they  should  be  taken  dead 
or  alive.  At  the  same  time  General  Gallas  received  a 
patent  commission,  by  which  these  orders  of  the  Emperor 
were  made  known  to  the  colonels  and  officers,  and  the 
army  was  released  from  its  obedience  to  the  traitor,  and 
placed  under  Lieutenant-General  Gallas  till  a  new  gene- 
ralissimo could  be  appointed.  In  order  to  bring  back  the 
seduced  and  deluded  to  their  duty,  and  not  to  drive  the 
guilty  to  despair,  a  general  amnesty  was  proclaimed  in 
regard  to  all  offences  against  the  imperial  majesty  com- 
mitted at  Pilsen. 

General  Gallas  was  not  pleased  with  the  honor  vi^hich 
was  done  him.  He  was  at  Pilsen  under  the  eye  of  the 
person  whose  fate  he  was  to  dispose  of ;  in  the  power  of 
an  enemy  who  had  a  hundred  eyes  to  watch  his  motions. 
If  Wallenstein  once  discovered  the  secret  of  his  corarais- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  309 

sion  nothing  could  save  him  from  the  effects  of  his 
vengeance  and  despair.  But  if  it  was  thus  dangerous  to 
be  the  secret  depositary  of  such  a  commission  how  much 
more  so  to  execute  it '?  The  sentiments  of  the  generals 
were  uncertain ;  and  it  was  at  least  doubtful  whether, 
after  the  step  they  had  taken,  they  would  be  ready  to 
trust  the  Emperor's  promises,  and  at  once  to  abandon  the 
brilliant  expectations  they  had  built  upon  Wallenstein's 
enterprise.  It  was  also  hazardous  to  attempt  to  lay  hands 
on  the  person  of  a  man  who  till  now  had  been  considered 
inviolable ;  who  from  long  exercise  of  supreme  power, 
and  from  habitual  obedience,  had  become  the  object  of 
deepest  respect ;  who  was  invested  with  every  attribute 
of  outward  majesty  and  inward  greatness  ;  whose  very 
aspect  inspired  terror,  and  who  by  a  nod  disposed  of  life 
and  death  !  To  seize  such  a  man,  like  a  common  criminal, 
in  the  midst  of  the  guards  by  whom  he  was  surrounded, 
and  in  a  city  apparently  devoted  to  him  ;  to  convert  the 
object  of  this  deep  and  habitual  veneration  into  a  subject 
of  compassion  or  of  contempt  was  a  commission  calcu- 
lated to  make  even  the  boldest  hesitate.  So  deeply  was 
fear  and  veneration  for  their  greneral  eng-raven  in  the 
breasts  of  the  soldiers  that  even  the  atrocious  crime  of 
high  treason  could  not  wholly  eradicate  these  sentiments. 
Gallas  perceived  the  impossibility  of  executing  his 
commission  under  tlie  eyes  of  the  duke;  and  his  most 
anxious  wish  was  before  venturing  on  any  steps  to  have 
an  interview  with  Altrinijer.  As  the  lonsr  absence  of 
the  latter  had  already  begun  to  excite  the  duke's  sus- 
picions Gallas  offered  to  repair  in  person  to  Frauenberg, 
and  to  prevail  on  Altringer,  his  relation,  to  return  with 
him.  Wallenstein  Avas  so  pleased  with  this  proof  of  his 
zeal  that  he  even  lent  him  his  own  equipage  for  the 
journey.  Rejoicing  at  tlie  success  of  his  stratagem,  he 
left  Pilsen  without  delay,  leaving  to  Coxant  Piccolomini  the 
task  of  w^^tching  Wallenstein's  further  movements.  He 
did  not  fail  as  he  went  along  to  make  use  of  the  imperial 
patent,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  troops  proved  more 
favorable  than  he  had  expected.  Instead  of  taking  back 
his  friend  to  Pilsen  he  despatched  him  to  Vienna,  to  warn 
the  Emperor  against  the  intended  attack,  while  he  him- 


310  THE  thirtv  years'  war. 

self  repaired  to  Upper  Austria,  of  whicli  the  safety  was 
tlireatened  by  the  near  approach  of  Duke  Bernard.  In 
Bohejuia  the  towns  of  Budweiss  and  Tabor  were  again 
gai-risoued  for  the  Emperor,  and  every  precaution  taken 
to  oppose  with  energy  the  designs  of  the  traitor. 

As  Gallas  did  not  appear  disposed  to  return,  Pic- 
colomini  determined  to  put  Wallenstein's  credulity  once 
more  to  the  test.  He  beo-ired  to  be  sent  to  bring  back 
Gallas,  and  Wallenstein  suffered  himself  a  second  time  to 
be  overreached.  This  inconceivable  blindness  can  only 
be  accounted  for  as  the  result  of  his  pride,  which  never 
retracted  the  opinion  it  had  once  formed  of  any  person, 
and  would  not  acknowledge  even  to  itself  the  possibility 
of  being  deceived.  He  conveyed  Count  Piccolomini  in 
his  own  carriage  to  Lintz,  where  the  latter  immediately 
followed  the  example  of  Gallas,  and  even  went  a  step 
farther.  He  had  promised  the  duke  to  return.  He  did 
so,  but  it  was  at  tlie  liead  of  an  army,  intending  to  sur- 
prise the  duke  in  Pilsen.  Another  army  under  General 
Suys  hastened  to  Prague  to  secure  that  capital  in  its  alle- 
giance and  to  defend  it  against  the  rebels.  Gallas  at  the 
same  time  announced  himself  to  the  different  imperial 
armies  as  the  commander-in-chief,  from  whom  they  were 
henceforth  to  receive  orders.  Placards  were  circulated 
through  all  the  imperial  camps  denouncing  the  duke 
and  his  four  confidants,  and  absolving  the  soldiers  from 
all  obedience  to  him. 

The  example  which  had  been  set  at  Lintz  was  uni- 
versally followed ;  imprecations  were  showered  on  the 
traitor,  and  he  was  forsaken  by  all  the  armies.  At  last, 
when  even  Piccolomini  returned  no  more,  the  mist  fell 
from  Wallenstein's  eyes,  and  in  consternation  he  awoke 
from  his  dream.  Yet  his  faith  in  the  truth  of  astrology 
and  in  the  fidelity  of  the  army  was  unshaken.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  intelligence  of  Piccolomini's  defection  he 
issued  orders  that  in  future  no  commands  were  to  be 
obeyed  which  did  not  proceed  directly  from  himself,  or 
from  Terzky,  or  lUo.  He  prepared  in  all  haste  to  ad- 
vance upon  Prague,  where  he  intended  to  throw  off'  the 
mask  and  to  o])enly  declare  against  the  Emperor.  All  the 
troops  were  to  assemble  before  that  city,  and  from  thence 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  311 

to  pour  down  with  rapidity  upon  Austria.  Duke  Ber- 
nard, wlio  liad  joined  the  consj)iracy,  was  to  support  the 
operations  of  tlie  duke  with  the  Swedish  troops,  and  to 
effect  a  diversion  upon  the  Danube. 

Terzky  was  ah-eady  upon  his  march  towards  Prague; 
and  nothing  but  the  want  of  horses  prevented  the  duke 
from  following  him  with  the  regiments  who  still  adhered 
faithfully  to  him.  But  when  with  the  most  anxious  ex- 
pectation he  awaited  intelligence  from  Prague  he  sud- 
denly received  information  of  the  loss  of  that  town,  the 
defection  of  his  generals,  the  desertion  of  his  troops,  the 
discovery  of  his  whole  plot,  and  the  rapid  advance  of 
Piccolomini,  Avho  was  sworn  to  his  destruction.  Sud- 
denly and  fearfully  had  all  his  projects  been  ruined  —  all 
his  hopes  annihilated.  He  stood  alone,  abandoned  by  all 
to  whom  he  had  been  a  benefactor,  betrayed  by  all  on 
whom  he  had  depended.  But  it  is  under  such  circum- 
stances that  great  minds  reveal  themselves.  Though 
deceived  in  all  his  expectations  he  refused  to  abandon 
one  of  his  designs  ;  he  despaired  of  nothing  so  long  as 
life  remained.  The  time  was  now  come  when  he  abso- 
lutely required  that  assistance  which  he  had  so  often 
solicited  from  the  Swedes  and  the  Saxons,  and  when  all 
doubts  of  the  sincerity  of  his  purposes  must  be  dispelled. 
And  now,  when  Oxenstiern  and  Arnheim  were  convinced 
of  the  sincirity  of  his  intentions,  and  were  aware  of  his 
necessities,  they  no  longer  hesitated  to  embrace  the 
favorable  opportunity  and  to  offer  him  their  protection. 
On  the  part  of  Saxony,  the  Duke  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe 
Lauenberg  was  to  join  him  with  four  thousand  men,  and 
Duke  Bernard  and  the  Palatine  Christian  of  Birkenfeld 
with  six  thousand  from  Sweden,  all  chosen  ti'oops. 

Wallenstein  left  Pilsen  with  Terzky's  regiment  and  the 
few  who  either  were  or  pretended  to  be  faithful  to  him, 
and  hastened  to  Egra,  on  the  frontiers  of  the  kingdom, 
in  order  to  be  near  the  Upper  Palatinate  and  to  facili- 
tate his  junction  with  Duke  Bernard.  He  was  not  yet 
informed  of  the  decree  by  which  he  was  proclaimed  a 
public  enemy  and  traitor;  this  thunder-stroke  awaited 
him  at  Egra.  He  still  reckoned  on  the  army  which  Gen- 
eral Schafgotsch  was  preparing  for  him  in  Silesia,  and 


312  THE   THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

flattered  himself  with  the  hoj^e  that  many  even  of  those 
who  had  forsaken  him  would  return  with  the  first  dawn- 
ing of  success.  Even  during  his  tlight  to  Egra  (so  little 
humility  had  he  learned  from  melancholy  experience)  he 
was  still  occupied  with  the  colossal  scheme  of  dethron- 
ing the  Emperor.  It  was  under  these  circumstances  that 
one  of  his  suite  asked  leave  to  offer  him  his  advice. 
"  Under  the  Emperor,"  said  he,  "  your  highness  is  certain 
of  being  a  great  and  respected  noble ;  with  the  enemy 
you  are  at  best  but  a  precai'ious  king.  It  is  unwise  to 
risk  a  certainty  for  uncertainty.  The  enemy  will  avail 
themselves  of  your  personal  influence  while  the  oppor- 
tunity lasts ;  but  you  will  ever  be  regarded  with  sus- 
picion, and  they  will  always  be  fearful  lest  you  should 
treat  them  as  you  have  done  the  Emperor.  Return, 
then,  to  your  alligiance,  while  there  is  yet  time."  "And 
how  is  that  to  be  done?"  said  Wallenstein,  interrupting 
him.  "  You  have  forty  thousand  men-at-arms,"  rejoined 
he  (meaning  ducats,  which  were  stamped  with  the 
figure  of  an  armed  man),  "take  them  with  you  and  go 
straight  to  the  imperial  court;  then  declare  that  the 
steps  you  have  hitherto  taken  were  merely  designed  to 
test  the  fidelity  of  the  Emperor's  servants,  and  of  dis- 
tinguishing the  loyal  from  the  doubtful ;  and  since  most 
have  shown  a  disposition  to  revolt,  say  you  are  come  to 
warn  his  imperial  majesty  against  those  dangerous  men. 
Thus  you  Mill  make  those  appear  as  traitors  who  are 
laboring  to  represent  you  as  a  false  villain.  At  the  im- 
perial court  a  man  is  sure  to  be  welcome  with  forty 
thousand  ducats,  and  Friedland  will  be  again  as  he  was 
at  first."  "The  advice  is  good,"  said  Wallenstein,  after 
a  pause,  "but  let  the  devil  trust  to  it." 

While  the  duke  in  his  retirement  in  Egra  was  ener- 
getically pushing  his  negotiations  with  the  enemy,  con- 
sulting the  stars,  and  indulging  in  new  hopes,  the  dagger 
which  was  to  put  an  end  to  his  existence  was  unsheathed 
almost  under  his  very  eyes.  The  imperial  decree  which 
proclaimed  him  an  outlaw  had  not  failed  of  its  effect ; 
and  an  avenajinor  Nemesis  ordained  that  the  ungfrateful 
should  fall  beneath  the  blow  of  ingratitude.  Among 
his   officers  Wallenstein   had   particularly  distinguished 


THE   THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  313 

one    Leslie,*  an   Irishman,  and   had    made    his   fortune. 
This    was    the  man  who   now  felt  himself  called  on   to 
execute  the  sentence  against  him  and  to  earn  the  price  of 
blood.     No  sooner   had  he  reached  Egra  in  the  suite  of 
tlie  duke  than  he   disclosed  to   the   commandant  of  the 
town,  Colonel  Butler,  and  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Gordon, 
two  Protestant  Scotchmen,   the  treasonable  designs  of  the 
duke,  which  the  latter  had  imprudently  enough  communi- 
cated to  him  during  the  journey.     In  these  two  individu- 
als he  had  found  men  capable  of  a  determined  resolution. 
They  were  now   called    upon  to  chose   between  treason 
and  duty,  between  their  legitimate  sovereign  and  a  fugitive 
abandoned  rebel ;  and  though  the  latter  was  their  com- 
mon benefactor  the  choice  could  not  remain  for  a  moment 
doubtful.     They  were  solemnly  pledged  to  the  allegiance 
of  the  Emperor,  and  this  duty  required  them  to  take  the 
most   rapid   measures    against   the  public  enemy.     The 
opportunity  was   favorable ;  his   evil   genius  seemed  to 
have  delivered  him  into  the  hands  of  vengeance.     But 
not  to  encroach  on  the  province  of  justice  they  resolved 
to  deliver  up  their  victim  alive ;  and  they  parted  with 
the   bold   resolve  to  take  their  general  prisoner.     This 
dark  plot  was  buried  in  the  deepest  silence,  and  Wallen- 
stein,  far  from  suspecting  his  impending  ruin,  flattered 
himself   that  in  the  garrison  of  Egra  he  possessed  his 
bravest  and  most  faithful  champions. 

At  this  time  he  became  acquainted  with  the  imperial 
proclamations  containing  his  sentence  and  which  had 
been  published  in  all  the  camps.  He  now  became  aware 
of  the  full  extent  of  the  danger  which  encompassed  him, 
the  utter  impossibihty  of  retracing  his  steps,  his  fearfully 
forlorn  condition,  and  the  absolute  necessity  of  at  once 
trusting  himself  to  the  faith  and  honor  of  the  Emperor's 
enemies.  To  Leslie  he  poured  forth  all  the  anguish  of 
his  wounded  spirit,  and  the  vehemence  of  his  agitation 
extracted  from  him  his  last  remaining  secret.  He  dis- 
closed to  this  officer  his  intention  to  deliver  up  Egra  and 
Ellenbogen,  the  passes  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Palatine  of 

*  Schiller  is  mistaken  as  to  this  point.  Leslie  was  a  Scotchman  and  Buttler 
an  Irislinian  and  a  papist.  He  died  a  general  in  the  Enipernr's  service,  and 
founded  at  Prague  a  convent  of  Irish  Franciscans  which  still  exists. 


314  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

Birkcnfeld,  and  at  the  same  time  informed  liira  of  the 
near  approach  of  Duke  Bernard,  of  whose  arrival  he 
hoped  to  receive  tidings  that  very  night.  These  dis- 
closures, which  Leslie  immediately  conimunieated  to  the 
conspirators,  made  them  change  their  original  plan.  The 
urgency  of  the  danger  admitted  not  of  half  measures. 
Egra  might  in  a  moment  be  in  the  enemy's  hands,  and  a 
sudden  revolution  set  their  prisoner  at  liberty.  To  antici- 
pate this  mischance  they  resolved  to  assassinate  him  and 
his  associates  the  following  niijht. 

In  order  to  execute  this  design  with  less  noise  it  was 
arranged  that  the  fearful  deed  should  be  perpetrated  at 
an  entertainment  which  Colonel  Buttler  should  give  in 
the  castle  of  Egra.  All  the  guests  except  Wallenstein 
made  their  appearance,  who,  being  in  too  great  anxiety 
of  mind  to  enjoy  company,  excused  himself.  With  regard 
to  him,  therefore,  their  plan  must  be  again  changed  ;  but 
they  resolved  to  execute  their  design  against  the  others. 
The  three  colonels,  Illo,  Terzky,  and  William  Kinsky, 
came  in  with  careless  confidence,  and  with  them  Captain 
Neumann,  an  officer  of  ability,  whose  advice  Terzky 
sought  in  every  intricate  affair.  Previous  to  their  arrival 
trusty  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  to  whom  the  plot  had  been 
communicated,  were  admitted  into  the  castle,  all  the 
avenues  leading  from  it  guarded,  and  six  of  Buttler's 
dragoons  concealed  in  an  appartment  close  to  the  ban- 
queting-room,  who,  on  a  concerted  signal,  were  to  rush 
in  and  kill  the  traitors.  Without  suspecting  the  danger 
that  hung  over  them,  the  guests  gayly  abandoned  them- 
selves to  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  and  Wallenstein's 
health  was  drunk  in  full  bumpers,  not  as  a  servant  of  the 
Emperor  but  as  a  sovereign  prince.  The  wine  opened 
their  hearts,  and  Illo,  with  exultation,  boasted  that  in 
three  days  an  army  would  arrive  such  as  Wallenstein  had 
never  before  been  at  the  head  of.  "  Yes,"  cried  Neu- 
mann, "  and  then  he  hopes  to  bathe  his  hands  in  Austrian 
blood."  During  this  conversation  the  desert  Avas  brought 
in,  and  Leslie  gave  tlie  concerted  signal  to  raise  the  draw- 
bridges, while  he  himself  received  the  keys  of  the  gates. 
In  an  instant  the  hall  was  filled  with  arined  men,  wlio, 
with  the  unexpected  greeting  of  "Long  live  Ferdinand  !" 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  315 

placed  themselves  behind  the  chairs  of  the  marked  guests. 
Surprised,  and  with  a  presentiment  of  their  fate,  they 
sj^rang  from  the  table.  Kinsky  and  Terzky  were  killed 
upon  the  spot  and  before  they  could  put  themselves  upon 
their  guard.  Neumann  during  the  confusion  in  tlie  hall 
escaped  into  the  court,  where,  however,  he  was  instantly 
recognized  and  cut  down.  lUo  alone  had  the  j^resence  of 
mind  to  defend  himself.  He  placed  his  back  against  a 
window,  from  whence  he  poured  the  bitterest  reproaches 
upon  Gordon,  and  challenged  him  to  fight  him  fairly  and 
honorably.  After  a  gallant  resistance,  in  which  he  slew 
two  of  his  assailants,  he  fell  to  the  ground  overpowered 
by  numbers  and  pierced  with  ten  wounds.  The  deed 
was  no  sooner  accomplished  than  Leslie  hastened  into  the 
town  to  prevent  a  tumult.  The  sentinels  at  the  castle 
gate  seeing  him  running  and  out  of  breatl),  and  believing 
he  belonged  to  the  rebels,  fired  their  muskets  after  him, 
but  without  effect.  The  firing,  however,  aroused  the 
town  guard,  and  all  Leslie's  presence  of  mind  was  requi- 
site to  allay  the  tumult.  He  hastily  detailed  to  them  all 
the  circumstances  of  Wallenstein's  conspiracy,  the  meas- 
ures which  had  been  already  taken  to  counteract  it,  the 
fate  of  the  four  rebels,  as  well  as  that  which  awaited  their 
chief.  Finding  the  troops  well-disposed  he  exacted  from 
them  a  new  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Emperor,  and  to  live 
and  die  for  the  good  cause.  A  hundred  of  Buttler's 
dragoons  were  sent  from  the  castle  into  the  town  to 
patrol  the  streets,  to  overawe  the  partisans  of  the  duke, 
and  to  prevent  tumult.  All  the  gates  of  Egra  were  at 
the  same  time  seized,  and  every  avenue  to  Wallenstein's 
residence,  which  adjoined  the  market-place,  guarded  by  a 
numerous  and  trusty  body  of  troops  sufficient  to  prevent 
either  his  escape  or  his  receiving  any  assistance  from 
without. 

But  before  they  i^roceeded  finally  to  execute  the  deed 
a  long  conference  Avas  held  among  the  conspirators  in  the 
castle  whether  they  should  kill  him  or  content  themselves 
with  making  him  prisoner.  Besprinkled  as  they  were 
with  the  blood,  and  deliberating  almost  over  the  A^ery 
corpses  of  his  murdered  associates,  even  these  furious 
men  yet  shuddered  at  the  horror  of  taking  away  so  illus- 


316  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

trious  a  life.  They  saw  him  before  their  mind's  eye 
their  leader  in  battle  in  the  days  of  his  good  fortune, 
surrounded  by  his  victorious  army,  clothed  with  all  the 
pomp  of  military  greatness ;  and  long-accustomed  awe 
again  seized  their  minds.  But  this  transitory  emotion 
was  soon  effaced  by  the  thought  of  the  immediate  danger. 
They  remembered  the  hints  which  Neumann  and  Illo  had 
thrown  out  at  table,  the  near  approach  of  a  formidable 
army  of  Swedes  and  Saxons,  and  they  clearly  saw  that 
the  death  of  the  traitor  was  their  only  chance  of  safety. 
They  adhered,  therefore,  to  their  first  resolution,  and 
Captain  Deveroux,  an  Irishman,  who  had  already  been 
retained  for  the  murderous  purpose,  received  decisive 
orders  to  act. 

While  these  three  oflicers  were  thus  deciding  upon  his 
fate  in  the  castle  of  Egra,  Wallenstein  was  occupied  in 
reading  the  stars  with  Seni.  "The  danger  is  not  yet 
over,  said  the  astrologer,  with  prophetic  spirit,  "  It  is^'' 
replied  the  duke,  who  would  give  the  law  even  to  heaven. 
"But,"  he  continued  with  equally  prophetic  spirit,  "that 
thou  friend  Seni  thyself  shall  soon  be  thrown  into  prison, 
that  also  is  written  in  the  stars."  The  astrologer  had 
taken  his  leave  and  Wallenstein  had  retired  to  bed,  when 
Captain  Deveroux  appeared  before  his  residence  with  six 
halberdiers,  and  was  immediately  admitted  by  the  guard, 
who  were  accustomed  to  see  him  visit  the  general  at  all 
hours.  A  page  who  met  him  upon  the  stairs  and  attempted 
to  raise  an  alarm  was  run  through  the  body  with  a  pike. 
In  the  ante-chamber  the  assassins  met  a  servant  who  had 
just  come  out  of  the  sleeping-room  of  his  master  and  had 
taken  with  him  the  key.  Putting  his  finger  upon  his 
mouth  the  terrified  domestic  made  a  sign  to  them  to  make 
no  noise,  as  tlie  duke  was  asleep.  "  Friend,"  cried 
Deveroux,  "  it  is  time  to  awake  him  ;  "  and  with  these 
wards  he  rushed  against  the  door,  which  was  also  bolted 
from  within,  and  burst  it  open. 

Wallenstein  had  been  roused  from  his  first  sleep  by  the 
report  of  a  musket  which  had  accidentally  gone  off,  and 
had  sprung  to  the  window  to  call  the  guard.  At  the  same 
moment  he  heard  from  the  adjoining  building  the  shrieks 
of   the   Countesses   Tcrzky  and   Kinsky,  who  had   just 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  317 

learned  the  violent  fate  of  their  husbands.  Ere  he  had 
time  to  reflect  on  these  terrible  events  Deveroux,  with 
the  other  murderers,  was  in  his  chamber.  The  duke  was 
in  liis  shirt,  as  he  had  leaped  out  of  bed,  and  leaning  on  a 
table  near  the  window.  "Art  thou  the  villain,"  cried  Deve- 
roux to  him,  "  who  intends  to  deliver  up  the  Emperor's 
troops  to  the  enemy,  and  to  tear  the  crown  from  the  head 
of  his  majesty?  Now  thou  must  die  !  "  He  paused  for 
a  few  moments  as  if  expecting  an  answer ;  but  scorn  and 
astonishment  kept  Wallenstein  silent.  Throwing  his  arms 
Avide  open  he  received  in  his  breast  the  deadly  blow  of 
the  halberts,  and,  without  uttering  a  groan,  fell  Aveltering 
in  his  blood. 

The  next  day  an  express  arrived  from  the  Duke  of 
Lauenburg  announcing  his  approach.  The  messenger  was 
secured,  and  another  in  Wallenstein's  livery  despatched  to 
the  duke  to  decoy  him  into  Egra.  The  stratagem  suc- 
ceeded, and  Francis  Albert  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  who  was  on  his  march 
towards  Egra,  was  nearly  sharing  the  same  fate.  Fortu- 
nately he  heard  of  Wallenstein's  death  in  time  to  save 
himself  by  a  retreat.  Ferdinand  shed  a  tear  over  the  fate 
of  his  general,  and  ordered  three  thousand  masses  to  be 
said  for  his  soul  at  Vienna ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  did 
not  forget  to  reward  his  assassins  with  gold  chains,  cham- 
berlains' keys,  dignities,  and  estates. 

Thus  did  Wallenstein,  at  the  ag;e  of  fiftv,  terminate  his 
active  and  extraordinary  life.  To  ambition  he  owed  both 
his  greatness  and  his  ruin ;  with  all  his  failings  he  pos- 
sessed great  and  admirable  qualities,  and  had  he  ke])t 
himself  within  due  bounds  he  would  have  lived  and  died 
without  an  equal.  Tlie  virtues  of  the  ruler  and  of  the 
hero,  prudence,  justice,  firmness,  and  courage,  are  strik- 
ingly prominent  features  in  his  character ;  but  he  wanted 
the  gentler  virtues  of  the  man  which  adorn  the  hero  and 
make  the  ruler  beloved.  Terror  was  the  talisman  with 
which  he  worked ;  extreme  in  his  punishments  as  in  his 
rewards,  he  knew  how  to  keep  alive  the  zeal  of  his  fol- 
lowers, while  no  general  of  ancient  or  modern  times  could 
boast  of  being  obeyed  with  equal  alacrity.  Submission 
to  his  will  was  more  pi-izcd  by  him  than  bravery ;  for  if 


318  THE    TIURTY    YEABS'   WAR. 

the  soldiers  work  by  the  latter  it  is  on  the  former  that 
the  general  depends.  He  continually  kept  up  the  obe- 
dience of  his  troops  by  capricious  orders,  and  profusely 
rewarded  the  readiness  to  obey  even  in  trifles,  because 
he  looked  rather  to  the  act  itself  than  its  object.  He  once 
issued  a  decree,  with  the  penalty  of  death  on  disobedience 
that  none  but  red  sashes  should  be  worn  in  the  army.  A 
captain  of  horse  no  sooner  heard  the  order  than  pulling 
off  his  gold-embroidered  sash  he  trampled  it  under  foot ; 
Wallenstein,  on  being  informed  of  the  circumstance,  pro- 
moted him  on  the  spot  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  His  com- 
prehensive glance  was  always  directed  to  the  whole,  and 
in  all  his  apparent  caprice  he  steadily  kept  in  view  some 
general  scope  or  bearing.  The  robberies  committed  by 
the  soldiers  in  a  friendly  country  had  led  to  the  severest 
orders  against  marauders ;  and  all  who  should  be  caught 
thieving  were  threatened  with  the  halter.  Wallenstein 
himself" having  met  a  straggler  in  the  open  country  upon 
the  field  commanded  him  to  be  seized  without  trial  as  a 
transgressor  of  the  law,  and  in  his  usual  voice  of  thunder 
exclaimed,  "Hang  the  fellow,"  against  which  no  opposition 
ever  availed.  The  soldier  pleaded  and  proved  his  in- 
nocence, but.  the  irrevocable  sentence  had  gone  forth. 
"  Hang,  then,  innocent,"  cried  the  inexorable  Wallenstein, 
"  the  guilty  will  have  then  more  reason  to  tremble." 
Preparations  were  already  making  to  execute  the  sentence 
when  the  soldier,  who  gave  himself  up  for  lost,  formed  the 
desperate  resolution  of  not  dying  without  revenge.  He 
fell  furiously  upon  his  judge,  but  was  overpowered  by 
numbers  and  disarmed  before  he  could  fulfil  his  design. 
"  Now  let  him  go,"  said  the  duke,  "  it  will  excite  sufficient 
terror." 

Plis  munificence  was  supported  by  an  immense  income, 
which  was  estimated  at  three  millions  of  florins  yearly, 
without  reckoning  the  enormous  sums  which  he  raised 
under  the  name  of  contributions.  His  liberality  and 
cleai-ness  of  understanding  raised  him  above  the  religious 
prejudices  of  his  age;  and  the  Jesuits  never  forgave  him 
for  having  seen  through  their  system  and  for  regarding 
the  Pope  as  nothing  more  than  a  bishop  of  Rome, 

But  as  no  one  ever  yet  came  to  a  fortunate  end  who  quar- 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   "WAR.  319 

relied  with  the  Church,  Wallenstein  also  must  augment 
the  number  of  its  victims.  Through  the  intrigues  of 
monks  he  lost  at  Ratisbon  the  command  of  the  army,  and 
at  Egra  his  life;  by  the  same  arts,  perhaps,  he  lost,  what 
w^as  of  more  consequence,  his  honorable  name  and  good 
repute  with  posterity.  For  in  justice  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  pens  which  have  traced  the  history  of 
this  extraordinary  man  are  not  untinged  with  partiality, 
and  that  the  treachery  of  the  duke,  and  his  designs  upon 
the  throne  of  Bohemia,  rest  not  so  much  upon  proven 
facts  as  upon  probable  conjecture.  No  documents  have 
yet  been  brought  to  light  which  disclose  with  historical 
certainty  the  secret  motives  of  his  conduct ;  and  among 
all  his  public  and  well-attested  actions  there  is,  perhaps, 
not  one  which  could  not  have  had  an  innocent  end. 
Many  of  his  most  obnoxious  measures  proved  nothing 
but  the  earnest  wish  he  entertained  for  peace ;  most  of 
the  others  are  explained  and  justified  by  the  well-founded 
distrust  he  entertained  of  the  Emperor  and  the  excus- 
able wish  of  maintaining  his  own  importance.  It  is  true 
that  his  conduct  towards  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  looks 
too  like  an  unworthy  revenge  and  the  dictates  of  an  im- 
placable spirit ;  but  still  none  of  his  actions,  perhaps, 
warrant  us  in  holding  his  treason  to  be  proved.  If 
necessity  and  despair  at  last  forced  him  to  deserve  the 
sentence  which  had  been  pronounced  against  him  while 
innocent,  still  this,  if  true,  will  not  justify  that  sentence. 
Thus  Wallenstein  fell,  not  because  he  was  a  rebel,  but  he 
became  a  rebel  because  he  fell.  Unfortunate  in  life  that 
he  made  a  victorious  party  his  enemy,  and  still  more 
unfortunate  in  death  that  the  same  party  survived  him 
and  wrote  his  history. 


BOOK  V. 


Wallenstein's  death  rendered  necessary  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  new  generalissimo ;  and  the  Emperor  yielded 
at  last  to  the  advice  of  the  Spaniards  to  raise  his  son 
Ferdinand,  King  of  Hungary,  to  that  dignity.     Under 


320  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

hira  Count  Gallas  commanded,  who  performed  the  func- 
tions of  commander-in-chief,  while  the  prince  brought  to 
this  post  nothing  but  his  name  and  dignity.  A  consid- 
erable force  was  soon  assembled  under  Ferdinand  ;  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine  brought  up  a  considerable  body  of 
auxiliaries  in  person,  and  the  Cardinal  Infante  joined 
hira  from  Italy  with  ten  thousand  men.  In  order  to 
drive  the  enemy  from  the  Danube  the  new  general 
undertook  the  enterprise  in  which  his  predecessor  had 
failed,  the  siege  of  Ratisbon.  In  vain  did  Duke  Bernard 
of  Weimar  penetrate  into  the  interior  of  Bavaria  with  a 
view  to  draw  the  enemy  from  the  town  ;  Ferdinand  con- 
tinued to  press  the  siege  with  vigor,  and  the  city,  after  a 
most  obstinate  resistance,  was  obliged  to  open  its  gates 
to  hira.  Donauwerth  soon  shared  the  same  fate,  and 
Nordlingen  in  Swabia  was  now  invested.  The  loss  of 
so  many  of  the  imperial  cities  was  severely  felt  by  the 
Swedish  party;  as  the  friendship  of  these  towns  had  so 
largely  contributed  to  the  success  of  their  arms,  indiffer- 
ence to  their  fate  would  have  been  inexcusable.  It 
would  have  been  an  indelible  disgrace  had  they  deserted 
their  confederates  in  their  need,  and  abandoned  thera  to 
the  revenge  of  an  implacable  conqueror.  Moved  by 
these  considerations  the  Swedish  army,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Horn  and  Bernard  of  Weimar,  advanced  upon 
Nordlingen,  determined  to  relieve  it  even  at  the  expense 
of  a  battle. 

The  undertaking  was  a  dangerous  one,  for  in  numbers 
the  enemy  was  greatly  superior  to  that  of  the  Swedes. 
There  was  also  a  further  reason  for  avoiding  a  battle  at 
present ;  the  enemy's  force  was  likely  soon  to  divide,  the 
Italian  troops  being  destined  for  the  Netherlands.  In 
the  meantime  such  a  position  might  be  taken  up  as  to 
cover  Nordlingen  and  cut  off  their  supplies.  All  these 
grounds  were  strongly  iirged  by  Gustavus  Horn  in  the 
Swedish  council  of  war;  but  his  remonstrances  were 
disregarded  by  men  who,  intoxicated  by  a  long  career  of 
success,  mistook  the  suggestions  of  prudence  for  the  voice 
of  timidity.  Overborne  by  the  superior  influence  of 
Duke  Bernard,  Gustavus  Horn  was  compelled  to  risk  a 
contest  whose  unfavorable  issue  a  dark  foreboding  seemed 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  321 

already  to  announce.  The  fate  of  the  battle  depended 
upon  the  possession  of  a  height  which  commanded  the 
imperial  camp.  An  attemj^t  to  occupy  it  during  the 
night  failed,  as  the  tedious  transport  of  the  artillery 
through  woods  and  hollow  ways  delayed  the  arrival 
of  the  troops.  When  the  Swedes  arrived  about  mid- 
night they  found  the  heights  in  possession  of  the  enemy, 
strongly  intrenched.  They  waited,  therefore,  for  day- 
break to  carry  them  by  storm.  Their  impetuous  courage 
surmounted  every  obstacle ;  the  intrenchments,  which 
were  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  were  successfully  scaled 
by  each  of  the  two  brigades  appointed  to  the  service ; 
but  as  they  entered  at  the  same  moment  from  opposite 
sides  they  met  and  threw  each  other  into  confusion.  At 
this  unfortunate  moment  a  barrel  of  powder  blew  up 
and  created  the  greatest  disorder  among  the  Swedes. 
The  imperial  cavalry  charged  upon  their  broken  ranks 
and  the  flight  became  universal.  No  persuasion  on  the 
part  of  their  general  could  induce  the  fugitives  to  renew 
the  assault. 

He  resolved,  therefore,  in  order  to  carry  this  important 
post,  to  lead  fresh  troops  to  the  attack.  But  in  the  inte- 
rim some  Spanish  regiments  had  marched  in,  and  every 
attempt  to  gain  it  was  repulsed  by  their  heroic  intre- 
pidity. One  of  the  duke's  own  regiments  advanced  seven 
times,  and  was  as  often  driven  back.  The  disadvantage 
of  not  occupying  this  post  in  time  was  quickly  and  sen- 
sibly felt.  The  fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery  from  the 
heights  caused  such  slaughter  in  the  adjacent  wing  of 
the  Swedes  that  Horn,  Avho  commanded  there,  was 
forced  to  give  orders  to  retire.  Instead  of  being  able  to 
cover  the  retreat  of  his  colleague,  and  to  check  the  pur- 
suit of  the  enemy,  Duke  Bernard,  overpowered  by 
numbers,  was  himself  driven  into  the  plain,  where  his 
routed  cavalry  spread  confusion  among  Horn's  brigade  and 
rendered  the  defeat  complete.  Almost  the  entire  infan- 
try were  killed  or  taken  prisoners.  More  than  twelve 
thousand  men  remained  dead  upon  the  field  of  battle ; 
eighty  field-pieces,  about  four  thousand  wagons,  and  three 
hundred  standards  and  colors  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Imperialists.     Horn  himself,  with  three  other  generals, 


322  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

were  taken  prisoners.  Duke  Bernard  with  difficulty 
saved  a  feeble  remnant  of  his  army,  which  joined  him  at 
Frankfort. 

The  defeat  at  Nordlingen  cost  the  Swedish  Chancellor 
the  second  sleepless  night*  he  had  passed  in  Germany. 
The  consequences  of  this  disaster  were  terrible.  The 
Swedes  had  lost  by  it  at  once  their  superiority  in  the 
field,  and  with  it  the  confidence  of  their  confederates, 
which  they  had  gained  solely  by  their  previous  military 
success.  A  dangerous  division  threatened  the  Protestant 
Confederation  with  ruin.  Consternation  and  terror  seized 
upon  tlie  whole  party,  while  the  Papists  arose  with  ex- 
ulting triumph  from  the  deep  humiliation  into  which  they 
had  sunk.  Swabia  and  the  adjacent  circles  first  felt  the 
consequences  of  the  defeat  of  Nordlingen ;  and  Wirtem- 
berg  in  particular  was  overrun  by  the  conquering  army. 
All'the  members  of  the  League  of  Heilbronn  trembled  at 
the  prospect  of  the  Emperor's  revenge  ;  those  who  could 
fled  to  Strasburg,  while  the  helpless  free  cities  awaited 
tlieir  fate  with  alarm.  A  little  more  of  moderation 
towards  the  conquered  would  have  quickly  reduced  all 
the  weaker  states  under  the  Emperor's  authority ;  but  the 
severity  which  was  practised,  even  against  those  who 
voluntarily  surrendered,  drove  the  rest  to  despair,  and 
roused  them  to  a  vigorous  resistance. 

In  this  perplexity  all  looked  to  Oxenstiern  for  counsel 
and  assistance  ;  Oxenstiern  applied  for  both  to  the  Ger- 
man States.  Troops  were  wanted,  money  likewise  to 
raise  new  levies  and  to  pay  to  the  old  the  arrears  which 
the  men  were  clamorously  demanding.  Oxenstiern  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony;  but  he  shame- 
fully abandoned  the  Swedish  cause  to  negotiate  for  a 
separate  peace  with  the  Emperor  at  Pirna.  He  solicited 
aid  from  the  Lower  Saxon  States ;  but  they,  long  wearied 
of  the  Swedish  pretensions  and  demands  for  money,  now 
thought  only  of  themselves;  and  George,  Duke  of  Lunen- 
burg, in  place  of  flying  to  the  assistance  of  Upper  Ger- 
many, laid  siege  to  Minden,  with  the  intention  of  keep- 
ing possession  of  it  for  himself.  Abandoned  by  his  Ger* 
man  allies,  the  chancellor  exerted  himself  to  obtain  the 

*  The  first  was  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  323 

assistance  of  foreign  powers.  England,  Holland,  and 
Venice  were  applied  to  for  troops  and  money  ;  and,  driven 
to  the  last  extremity,  the  chancellor  reluctantly  resolved 
to  take  the  disagreeable  step  which  he  had  so  long 
avoided,  and  to  throw  himself  under  the  protection  of 
France. 

The  moment  had  at  last  arrived  which  Richelieu  had 
long  waited  for  with  impatience.  Nothing,  he  was  aware, 
but  the  impossibility  of  saving  themselves  by  any  other 
means  could  induce  the  Protestant  States  in  Germany -to 
support  the  pretensions  of  France  upon  Alsace.  This 
extreme  necessity  had  now  arrived ;  the  assistance  of 
that  230wer  was  indispensable,  and  she  was  resolved  to  be 
well  paid  for  the  active  part  Avhich  she  was  about  to  take 
in  the  German  war.  Full  of  lustre  and  dignity  it  now 
came  upon  the  political  stage.  Oxenstiern,  who  felt  little 
reluctance  in  bestowing  the  rights  and  possessions  of  the 
empire,  had  already  ceded  the  fortress  of  Philipsburg, 
and  the  other  long-coveted  places.  The  Protestants  of 
Upper  Germany  now,  in  their  own  names,  sent  a  special 
embassy  to  Richelieu,  requesting  him  to  take  Alsace,  the 
fortress  of  Breyssach,  which  was  still  to  be  recovered 
from  the  enemy,  and  all  the  places  upon  the  Upper  Rhine, 
Avhich  were  the  keys  of  Germany,  under  the  j^rotection  of 
France.  What  was  implied  by  French  protection  had 
been  seen  in  the  conduct  of  France  towards  the  Bishoprics 
of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  which  it  had  hold  for  centu- 
ries against  the  rightful  owners.  Treves  was  already  in 
the  possession  of  French  garrisons;  Lorraine  was  in  a 
manner  conquered,  as  it  might  at  any  time  be  overrun  by 
an  army,  and  could  not  alone  and  with  its  own  strength 
withstand  its  formidable  neic^hbor.  France  now  enter- 
tamed  the  hope  of  adding  Alsace  to  its  large  and  numer- 
ous possessions,  and,  —  since  a  treaty  was  soon  to  be 
concluded  with  the  Dutch  for  the  partition  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands  —  the  prospect  of  making  the  Rhine  its 
natural  boundary  towards  Germany.  Thus  shamefully 
were  the  rights  of  Germany  sacrificed  by  the  German 
States  to  this  treacherous  and  grasping  power,  which,  un- 
der the  mask  of  a  disinterested  friendship,  aimed  only  at 
its  own  aggrandizement ;  and  while  it  boldly  claimed  the 


324  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

honorable  title  of  a  protectress,  was  solely  occupied  with 
promoting  its  own  schemes  and  advancing  its  own  inter- 
ests amid  the  general  confusion. 

In  return  for  these  important  cessions  France  engaged 
to  effect  a  diversion  in  favor  of  the  Swedes  by  commenc- 
ing hostilities  against  the  Spaniards ;  and  if  this  should 
lead  to  an  open  breach  with  the  Emperor,  to  maintain  an 
army  upon  the  German  side  of  the  Rhine,  which  was  to 
act  in  conjunction  with  the  Swedes  and  Germans  against 
Austria.  For  a  war  with  Spain  the  Spaniards  themselves 
soon  afforded  the  desired  pfetext.  Making  an  inroad 
from  the  Netherlands  upon  the  city  of  Treves,  they  cut 
in  pieces  the  French  garrison ;  and,  in  open  violation  of 
the  law  of  nations,  made  prisoner  the  Elector,  who  had 
placed  himself  under  the  protection  of  France,  and  carried 
him  into  Flanders.  When  the  Cardinal  Infante,  as  Vice- 
roy of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  refused  satisfaction  for 
these  injuries,  and  delayed  to  restore  the  prince  to  liberty, 
Richelieu,  after  the  old  custom,  formally  proclaimed  war 
at  Brussels  by  a  herald,  and  the  war  was  at  once  opened  by 
three  different  armies  in  Milan,  in  the  Valteline,  and  in 
Flanders.  The  French  minister  was  less  anxious  to 
commence  hostilities  with  the  Emperor,  which  promised 
fewer  advantages  and  threatened  greater  difficulties.  A 
fourth  army,  however,  was  detached  across  the  Rhine 
into  Germany,  under  the  command  of  Cardinal  Lavalette, 
which  was  to  act  in  conjunction  with  Duke  Bernard 
against  the  Emperor  without  a  previous  declaration  of 
war. 

A  heavier  blow  for  the  Swedes  than  even  the  defeat  of 
Nordlingen  was  the  reconciliation  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  with  the  Emperor.  After  many  fruitless  attempts, 
both  to  bring  about  and  to  prevent  it,  it  was  at  last  ef- 
fected in  1634,  at  Pirna,  and  the  following  year  reduced 
into  a  formal  treaty  of  peace  at  Prague.  The  Elector  of 
Saxony  had  always  viewed  with  jealousy  the  pretensions 
of  the  Swedes  in  Germany  ;  and  his  aversion  to  this  for- 
eign power,  which  now  gave  laws  within  the  Empire,  had 
grown  with  every  fresh  requisition  that  Oxenstiern  was 
obliged  to  make  upon  the  German  States.  This  ill- 
feeling  was  kept  alive  by  the  Spanish  court,  who  labored 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'   WAR.  325 

earnestly  to  effect  a  peace  between  Saxony  and  the  Em- 
peror, Wearied  with  the  calamities  of  a  long  and  de- 
structive contest  which  had  selected  Saxony  above  all 
otliers  for  its  theatre  ;  grieved  by  the  miseries  wliich  both 
friend  and  foe  inflicted  upon  his  subjects,  and  seduced  by 
the  tempting  propositions  of  the  House  of  Austria,  the 
Elector  at  last  abandoned  tlie  common  cause  ;  and  caring 
little  for  the  fate  of  his  confederates,  or  the  liberties  of 
Germany,  thought  only  of  securing  his  own  advantages, 
even  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  body. 

In  fact  the  misery  of  Germany  had  risen  to  snch  a 
height  that  all  clamorously  vociferated  for  peace  ;  and 
even  the  most  disadvantageous  pacification  would  have 
been  hailed  as  a  blessing  from  heaven.  The  plains  which 
foi-merly  had  been  thronged  with  a  happy  and  industrious 
population,  where  nature  had  lavished  her  choicest  gifts, 
and  plenty  and  prosperity  had  reigned,  were  now  a  wild 
and  desolate  wilderness.  The  fields,  abandoned  by  the 
industrious  husbandman,  lay  waste  and  uncultivated  ;  and 
no  sooner  had  the  young  crops  given  the  promise  of  a 
smiling  harvest  than  a  single  march  destroyed  the  labors 
of  a  year  and  blasted  the  last  hope  of  an  afflicted  peas- 
antry. Burnt  castles,  wasted  fields,  villages  in  ashes, 
were  to  be  seen  extending  far  and  wide  on  all  sides,  while 
the  ruined  peasantry  had  no  resource  left  but  to  swell  the 
horde  of  incendiaries,  and  fearfully  to  retaliate  upon  their 
fellows,  who  had  hitherto  been  spared  the  miseries  which 
they  themselves  had  suffered.  The  only  safeguard  against 
oppression  Avas  to  become  an  oppressor.  The  towns 
groaned  under  the  licentiousness  of  undisciplined  and 
plundering  garrisons,  who  seized  and  wasted  the  property 
of  the  citizens,  and  under  the  license  of  their  position  com- 
mitted the  most  remorseless  devastation  and  cruelty.  If 
the  march  of  an  army  converted  whole  provinces  into  des- 
erts, if  others  were  impoverished  by  winter  quarters  or 
exhausted  by  contributions,  these  still  were  but  passing 
evils,  and  the  industry  of  a  year  might  efface  the  miseries 
of  a  few  months.  But  there  was  no  relief  for  those  who 
had  a  garrison  within  their  walls  or  in  the  neighborhood  ; 
even  the  change  of  fortune  could  not  improve  their  un- 
fortunate fate,  since  the  victor  trod  in  the  steps  of  the 


326  THE   THIRTY   YEARS*   WAR. 

vanquished,  and  friends  were  not  more  merciful  than 
enemies.  The  neglected  farms,  the  destruction  of  the 
crops,  and  the  numerous  armies  which  overran  the  ex- 
hausted country,  were  inevitably  followed  by  scarcity 
and  the  high  price  of  provisions,  which  in  the  later  years 
was  still  further  increased  by  a  general  failure  in  the  crops. 
The  crowding  together  of  men  in  camjjs  and  quarters  — 
want  upon  one  side  and  excesses  on  the  other,  occasioned 
contagious  distempers,  which  were  more  fatal  than  even 
the  sword.  In  this  long  and  general  confusion  all  the 
bonds  of  social  life  were  broken  up;  —  respect  for  the 
rights  of  their  fellow-men,  the  fear  of  the  laws,  purity  of 
morals,  honor,  and  religion  were  laid  aside  where  might 
ruled  supreme  with  iron  sceptre.  Under  the  shelter  of 
anarchy  and  impunity  every  vice  flourished,  and  men 
became  as  wild  as  the  country.  No  station  was  too 
dignified  for  outrage,  no  property  too  holy  for  rapine  and 
avarice.  In  a  word,  the  soldier  reigned  supreme ;  and 
that  most  brutal  of  despots  often  made  his  own  ofiicer 
feel  his  power.  The  leader  of  an  army  was  a  far  more 
important  person  within  any  country  where  he  appeared 
than  its  lawful  governor,  who  was  frequently  obliged  to 
fly  before  him  into  his  own  castles  for  safety.  Germany 
swarmed  with  these  petty  tyrants,  and  the  country  suffei-ed 
equally  from  its  enemies  and  its  protectors.  These  wounds 
rankled  the  deeper  when  the  unhappy  victims  recollected 
that  Germany  was  sacrificed  to  the  ambition  of  foreign 
powers,  who  for  their  own  ends  prolonged  the  miseries 
of  war.  Germany  bled  under  the  scourge  to  extend  the 
conquests  and  influence  of  Sweden  ;  and  the  torch  of 
discord  was  kept  alive  within  the  Empire  that  the 
services  of  Richelieu  might  be  rendered  indispensable  in 
France. 

But  in  truth  it  was  not  merely  interested  voices  Avhich 
opposed  a  peace  ;  and  if  both  Sweden  and  the  German 
States  were  anxious  from  corrupt  motives  to  prolong  the 
conflict  they  were  seconded  in  their  views  by  sound 
policy.  After  the  defeat  of  Nordlingen  an  equitable 
peace  was  not  to  be  expected  from  the  Emperor;  and 
this  being  the  case,  was  it  not  too  great  a  sacrifice,  after 
seventeen  years  of  war  with  all  its  miseries,  to  abandon 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  327 

the  contest,  not  only  without  advantage,  but  even  with 
loss  ?  What  would  avail  so  much  bloodshed  if  all  was  to 
remain  as  it  had  been  ;  if  their  rights  and  pretensions 
were  neither  larger  nor  safer ;  if  all  that  had  been  won 
with  so  much  difficulty  was  to  be  surrendered  for  a  peace 
at  any  cost  ?  Would  it  not  be  better  to  endure  for  two 
or  three  years  more  the  burdens  they  had  borne  so  long, 
and  to  reap  at  last  some  recompense  for  twenty  years  of 
suffering  ?  Neither  was  it  doubtful  that  peace  might  at 
last  be  obtained  on  favorable  terras,  if  only  the  Swedes 
and  the  German  Protestants  should  continue  united  in  the 
cabinet  and  in  the  field,  and  pursued  their  common  in- 
terests with  a  recij)rocal  sympathy  and  zeal.  Their 
divisions  alone  had  rendered  the  enemy  formidable,  and 
protracted  the  acquisition  of  a  lasting  and  general  peace. 
And  this  great  evil  the  Elector  of  Saxony  had  brought 
upon  the  Protestant  cause  by  concluding  a  separate  treaty 
with  Austria. 

He,  indeed,  had  commenced  his  negotiations  with  the 
Emperor  even  before  the  battle  of  Nordlingen ;  and  the 
■unfortunate  issue  of  that  battle  only  accelerated  their  con- 
clusion. By  it  all  his  confidence  in  the  Swedes  Avas  lost ; 
and  it  was  even  doubted  whether  they  would  ever  recover 
from  the  blow.  The  jealousies  among  their  generals,  the 
insubordination  of  the  army,  and  the  exhaustion  of  the 
Swedish  kingdom,  shut  out  any  reasonable  prospect  of 
effective  assistance  on  their  part.  The  Elector  hastened, 
therefore,  to  profit  by  the  Emperor's  magnanimity,  who, 
even  after  the  battle  of  Nordlingen,  did  not  recall  the 
conditions  previously  offered.  Wliile  Oxenstiern,  who 
had  assembled  the  estates  in  Frankfort,  made  further 
demands  upon  them  and  him,  the  Emperor,  on  the  con- 
trary, made  concessions ;  and  therefore  it  required  no 
long  consideration  to  decide  between  them. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  he  was  anxious  to  escape 
the  charge  of  sacrificing  the  common  cause  and  attending 
only  to  his  own  interests.  All  the  German  States,  and 
even  the  Swedes,  were  publicly  invited  to  become  parties 
to  this  peace,  although  Saxony  and  the  Emperor  were 
the  only  powers  who  deliberated  upon  it,  and  who  assumed 
the  right  to  give  law  to  Germany.     By  this  self-ajDpointed 


.328  THE    THIRTY   YEAES'   WAR. 

tribunal  the  grievances  of  the  Protestants  were  discussed, 
their  rights  and  privileges  decided,  and  even  the  fate  of 
religions  determined  without  the  presence  of  those  who 
were  most  deeply  interested  in  it.  Between  them  a 
general  peace  was  resolved  on,  and  it  was  to  be  enforced 
by  an  imperial  army  of  execution  as  a  formal  decree  of 
the  Empire.  Whoever  opposed  it  was  to  be  treated  as 
a  public  enemy ;  and  thus,  contrary  to  their  rights,  the 
states  were  to  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  a  law  in  the 
passing  of  which  they  had  no  share.  Thus,  even  in  form, 
the  pacification  at  Prague  was  an  arbitrary  measui'c;  nor 
was  it  less  so  in  its  contents.  The  Edict  of  Restitution 
had  been  the  chief  cause  of  dispute  betAveen  the  Elector 
and  the  Emperor ;  and  therefore  it  was  first  considered  in 
their  deliberations.  Without  formally  annulling  it,  it 
was  determined  by  the  treaty  of  Prague  that  all  the  ecclesi- 
astical domains  holding  immediately  of  the  Empire,  and, 
among  the  mediate  ones,  those  which  had  been  seized  by 
the  Protestants  subsequently  to  the  treaty  at  Passau, 
should  for  forty  years  remain  in  the  same  position  as 
they  had  been  in  before  the  Edict  of  Restitution,  but 
without  any  formal  decision  of  the  Diet  to  that  effect. 
Before  the  expiration  of  this  term  a  commission,  composed 
of  equal  numbers  of  both  religions,  should  proceed  to  settle 
the  matter  peaceably  and  according  to  law ;  and  if  this 
commission  should  be  unable  to  come  to  a  decision  each 
party  should  remain  in  possession  of  the  rights  which  it 
had  exercised  before  the  Edict  of  Restitution.  This  ar- 
rangement, therefore,  far  from  removing  the  grounds  of 
dissension,  only  suspended  the  dispute  for  a  time;  and 
this  article  of  the  treaty  of  Prague  only  covered  the 
embers  of  a  future  war. 

The  Archbishopric  of  Magdeburg  remained  in  posses- 
sion of  Prince  Augustus  of  Saxony,  and  Halberstadt  in 
that  of  the  Archduke  Leopold  William.  Four  estates 
were  taken  from  the  territory  of  Magdeburg  and  given 
to  Saxony,  for  which  the  Administrator  of  Magdeburg, 
Cliristian  William  of  Brandenburg,  was  otherwise  to  be 
indemnified.  The  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  upon  acceding 
to  this  treaty,  were  to  be  acknowledged  as  rightful  pos- 
sessors of  their  territories,  in  Avhich  the  magnanimity  of 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  329 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  long  ago  reinstated  them.  Do- 
nauwerth  recovered  its  liberties.  The  important  claims 
of  the  heirs  of  the  Palatine,  however  important  it  might 
be  for  the  Protestant  cause  not  to  lose  this  electorate  vote 
in  the  Diet,  were  passed  over  in  consequence  of  the  ani- 
mosity subsisting  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Cal- 
vinists.  All  the  conquests  which,  in  the  course  of  the 
■war,  had  been  made  by  the  German  States,  or  by  the 
League  and  the  Emperor,  were  to  be  mutually  restored ; 
all  which  had  been  appropriated  by  the  foreign  powders  of 
France  and  Sweden  was  to  be  forcibly  wrested  from 
them  by  the  united  powers.  The  troops  of  the  contract- 
ing parties  were  to  be  formed  into  one  imperial  army, 
which,  supported  and  paid  by  the  Empire,  was,  by  force 
of  arms,  to  carry  into  execution  the  covenants  of  the 
treaty. 

As  tlie  peace  of  Prague  was  intended  to  serve  as  a 
general  law  of  the  Empire,  those  points  Avhich  did  not 
immediately  affect  the  latter  formed  the  subject  of  a 
separate  treaty.  By  it  Lusatia  was  ceded  to  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  as  a  fief  of  Bohemia,  and  special  articles  guar- 
anteed the  freedom  of  religion  of  this  country  and  of 
Silesia. 

All  the  Protestant  states  were  invited  to  accede  to  the 
treaty  of  Prague,  and  on  that  condition  were  to  benefit 
by  the  amnesty.  The  Princes  of  Wurtemberg  and  Baden, 
whose  territories  the  Emperor  was  already  in  possession 
of,  and  which  he  was  not  disposed  to  restore  uncondi- 
tionally ;  and  such  vassals  of  Austria  as  had  borne  arms 
against  their  sovereign ;  and  those  states  which,  under 
the  direction  of  Oxenstiern,  composed  the  council  of  the 
Upper  German  Circle,  were  excluded  from  the  treaty,  — 
not  so  much  with  the  view  of  continuing  the  war  against 
them  as  of  compelling  them  to  purchase  peace  at  a  dearer 
rate.  Their  territories  were  to  be  retained  in  pledge  till 
everything  should  be  restored  to  its  former  footing.  Such 
was  the  treaty  of  Prague.  Equal  justice,  however,  towards 
all  might  perhaps  have  restored  confidence  between  the 
head  of  the  Empire  and  its  members  —  between  the 
Protestants  and  the  Roman  Catholics — between  the 
Reformed   and   the   Lutheran   party;  and   the   Swedes, 


330  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

abandoned  by  all  their  allies,  would  in  all  probability 
have  been  driven  from  Germany  with  disgrace.  But  this 
inequality  strengthened  in  those  who  were  more  severely 
treated  the  spirit  of  mistrust  and  opposition,  and  made 
it  an  easier  task  for  the  Swedes  to  keep  alive  the  flames 
of  war  and  to  maintain  a  party  in  Germany. 

The  peace  of  Prague,  as  might  have  been  expected,  was 
received  with  very  various  feelings  throughout  Germany. 
The  attempt  to  conciliate  both  parties  had  rendered  it 
obnoxious  to  both.  The  Protestants  complained  of  the 
restraints  imposed  upon  them ;  the  Roman  Catholics 
thought  that  these  hated  sectaries  had  been  favored  at 
the  expense  of  the  true  church.  In  the  opinion  of  the 
latter  the  church  had  been  deprived  of  its  inalienable 
rights  by  the  concession  to  the  Protestants  of  forty  years' 
undisturbed  possession  of  the  ecclesiastical  benefices ; 
while  the  former  murmured  that  the  interests  of  the 
Protestant  church  had  been  betrayed  because  toleration 
had  not  been  granted  to  their  coreligionists  in  the 
Austrian  dominions.  But  no  one  was  so  bitterly  re- 
proached as  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  publicly 
denounced  as  a  deserter,  a  traitor  to  religion  and  the 
liberties  of  the  Empire,  and  a  confederate  of  the  Em- 
peror. 

In  the  meantime  he  consoled  himself  with  the  triumph  of 
seeing  most  of  the  Protestant  states  compelled  by  neces- 
sity to  embrace  this  peace.  The  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
Duke  William  of  Weimar,  the  Princes  of  Anhalt,the  Dukes 
of  Mecklenburg,  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick-Lunenburg,  the 
Hanse  towns,  and  most  of  the  imperial  cities  acceded 
to  it.  The  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse  long  wavered,  or 
affected  to  do  so,  in  order  to  gain  time  and  to  regulate  his 
measures  by  the  course  of  events.  He  had  conquered 
several  fertile  provinces  of  Westphalia,  and  derived  from 
them  principally  the  means  of  continuing  the  war  :  these, 
by  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  he  was  bound  to  restore. 
Bernard,  Duke  of  Weimar,  whose  states  as  yet  existed 
only  on  paper,  as  a  belligerent  power  was  not  affected  by 
the  treaty,  but  as  a  general  was  so  materially;  and  in 
either  view  he  must  equally  be  disposed  to  reject  it.  His 
whole  riches  consisted  in  his  bravery,  his  possessions  in 


THE    TIIIKTY   YEAES'   WAR.  331 

his  sword.  War  alone  gave  him  greatness  and  importance, 
and  war  alone  could  realize  the  projects  which  his  ambition 
suggested. 

But  of  all  who  declaimed  against  the  treaty  of  Prague 
none  were  so  loud  in  their  clamors  as  the  Swedes,  and 
none  had  so  much  reason  for  their  oj^position.  Invited  to 
Germany  by  the  Germans  themselves,  the  champions  of 
the  Protestant  chixrch  and  the  freedom  of  the  states 
which  they  had  defended  with  so  much  bloodshed  and 
with  the  sacred  life  of  their  king,  they  now  saw  them- 
selves suddenly  and  shamefully  abandoned,  disappointed 
in  all  their  hopes,  without  reward  and  without  gratitude 
driven  from  the  empire  for  which  they  had  toiled  and 
bled,  and  exjDOsed  to  the  ridicule  of  the  enemy  by  the  very 
princes  who  owed  everything  to  them.  No  satisfaction, 
no  indemnification  for  the  expenses  which  they  had  in- 
curred, no  equivalent  for  the  conquests  which  they  were 
to  leave  behind  them,  was  provided  by  the  treaty  of 
Prague.  They  were  to  be  dismissed  poorer  than  they 
came,  or  if  they  resisted  to  be  expelled  by  the  very  powers 
Avho  had  invited  them.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  at  last 
spoke  of  a  pecuniary  indemnification,  and  mentioned  the 
small  sum  of  two  million  five  hundred  thousand  florins  ; 
but  the  Swedes  had  already  expended  considerably  more, 
and  this  disgraceful  equivalent  in  money  was  both  con- 
trary to  their  true  interests  and  injurious  to  their  ]:)ride. 
"  The  Electors  of  Bavaria  and  Saxony,"  replied  Oxen- 
stiern,  "have  been  paid  for  their  services,  which,  as  vas- 
sals, they  were  bound  to  render  the  Emperor,  with  the 
possession  of  important  provinces;  and  shall  we  who  have 
sacrificed  our  king  for  Germany  be  dismissed  with  the 
miserable  sum  of  two  million  five  hundred  thousand 
florins?"  The  disappointment  of  their  expectations  was 
the  more  severe  because  the  Swedes  had  calculated  upon 
being  recompensed  with  the  Duchy  of  Pomerania,  the 
present  possessor  of  which  was  old  and  without  heirs. 
But  the  succession  of  this  territory  was  confirmed  by  the 
treaty  of  Prague  to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg ;  and  all 
the  neighboring  powers  declared  against  allowing  the 
Swedes  to  obtain  a  footing  within  the  empire. 

Never  in  the  whole  course  of  the  war  had  the  prospects 


332  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

of  the  Swedes  looked  more  gloomy  than  in  the  year  1635, 
immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  Prague. 
Many  of  their  allies,  particularly  among  the  free  cities, 
abandoned  them  to  benefit  by  the  peace ;  others  were 
compelled  to  accede  to  it  by  the  victorious  arms  of  the 
Emperor.  Augsburg,  subdued  by  famine,  surrendered 
under  the  severest  conditions ;  Wurtzburg  and  Coburg 
were  lost  to  the  Austrians.  The  League  of  Heilbronn 
was  fprmally  dissolved.  Nearly  the  whole  of  Upper 
Germany,  the  chief  seat  of  the  Swedish  power,  was  re- 
duced under  the  Emperor.  Saxony  on  the  strength  of  the 
treaty  of  Prague  demanded  the  evacuation  of  Thuringia, 
Halberstadt,  and  Magdeburg.  Philipsburg,  the  military 
depot  of  France,  was  surprised  by  the  Austrians  with  all 
the  stores  it  contained ;  and  this  severe  loss  checked  the 
activity  of  France.  To  complete  the  embarrassments  of 
Sweden  the  truce  with  Poland  was  drawing  to  a  close. 
To  support  a  war  at  the  same  time  with  Poland  and  in 
Germany  was  far  beyond  the  power  of  Sweden ;  and  all 
that  remained  was  to  choose  between  them.  Pride  and 
ambition  declared  in  favor  of  continuing  the  German  war 
at  whatever  sacrifice  on  the  side  of  Poland.  An  army 
however  was  necessary  to  command  the  respect  of  Poland 
and  to  give  weight  to  Sweden  in  any  negotiations  for  a 
truce  or  a  peace. 

The  mind  of  Oxenstiern,  firm  and  inexhaustible  in  expe- 
dients, set  itself  manfullv  to  meet  these  calamities  which 
all  combined  to  overwhelm  Sweden ;  and  his  slu'ewd  un- 
derstanding taught  him  how  to  turn  even  misfortunes  to 
his  advantage.  The  defection  of  so  many  German  cities 
of  the  empire  deprived  him,  it  is  true,  of  a  great  part  of 
his  former  allies,  but  at  the  same  time  it  freed  him  from 
the  necessity  of  paying  any  regard  to  their  interests.  The 
more  the  number  of  his  enemies  increased  the  more  pi'ov- 
inces  and  magazines  were  opened  to  his  troops.  The 
gross  ingratitude  of  the  states  and  the  haughty  contempt 
with  which  tlie  Emperor  behaved  (who  did  not  even 
condescend  to  treat  directly  with  him  about  a  peace), 
excited  in  him  the  courage  of  despair  and  a  noble  deter- 
mination to  maintain  the  struggle  to  the  last.  The  con- 
tinuance of  war,  however  unfortunate  it  might  prove,  could 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  333 

not  render  the  situation  of  Sweden  worse  than  it  now 
was ;  and  if  Germany  was  to  be  evacuated  it  was  at  least 
better  and  nobler  to  do  so  sword  in  hand,  and  to  yield  to 
force  rather  than  to  fear. 

In  the  extremity  in  which  the  Swedes  were  now  placed 
by  the  desertion  of  their  allies  they  addressed  themselves 
to  France,  who  met  them  with  the  greatest  encouragement. 
Tlie  interest  of  the  two  crowns  were  closely  united,  and 
France  would  have  injured  herself  by  allowing  the  Swedish 
power  in  Germany  to  decline.  The  helpless  situation  of 
the  Swedes  was  rather  an  additional  motive  with  France 
to  cement  more  closely  their  alliance,  and  to  take  a  more 
active  part  in  the  German  war.  Since  the  alliance  with 
Sweden  at  Beerwald,  in  1632,  France  had  maintained  the 
war  against  the  Emperor  by  the  arms  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  without  any  open  or  formal  breach,  by  furnishing 
subsidies  and  increasing  the  number  of  his  enemies.  But 
alarmed  at  the  unexpected  rapidity  and  success  of  the 
Swedish  arms,  France,  in  anxiety  to  restore  the  balance 
of  power  which  was  disturbed  by  the  preponderance  of 
the  Swedes,  seemed  for  a  time  to  have  lost  sight  of  her 
original  designs.  She  endeavored  to  protect  the  Roman 
Catholic  princes  of  the  empire  against  the  Swedish  con- 
queror by  the  treaties  of  neutrality,  and  when  this  plan 
failed  she  even  meditated  herself  to  declare  war  against 
him.  But  no  sooner  had  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  the  desperate  situation  of  the  Swedish  affairs,  dis- 
pelled this  apprehension,  than  she  returned  with  fresh  zeal 
to  her  first  design,  and  readily  afforded  in  this  misfortune 
the  aid  which  in  the  hour  of  success  she  had  refused. 
Freed  from  the  checks  which  the  ambition  and  vigilance 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  placed  upon  her  plans  of  aggrand- 
izement, France  availed  herself  of  the  favorable  oppor- 
tunity afforded  by  the  defeat  of  Nordlingen  to  obtain  the 
entire  direction  of  the  war,  and  to  prescribe  laws  to  those 
who  sued  for  her  powerful  protection.  Tlie  moment 
seemed  to  smile  upon  her  boldest  plans,  and  those  which 
had  formerly  seemed  chimerical  now  appeared  to  be  jus- 
tified by  circumstances.  She  now  turned  her  whole  at- 
tention to  the  war  in  Germany ;  and  as  soon  as  she  had 
secured  her  own  private  ends  by  a  treaty  with  the  Ger- 


334  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

mans  she  suddenly  entered  the  political  arena  as  an  active 
and  a  commanding  power.  While  the  other  belligerent 
states  had  been  exhausting  themselves  in  a  tedious  con- 
test, France  had  been  reserving  her  strength  and  main- 
tained the  contest  by  money  alone;  but  now,  when  the 
state  of  things  called  for  more  active  measures,  she  seized 
the  sword  and  astonished  Europe  by  the  boldness  and 
magnitude  of  her  undertakings.  At  the  same  mornent 
she  fitted  out  two  fleets  and  sent  six  different  armies  into 
the  field,  while  she  subsidized  a  foreign  crown  and  several 
of  the  German  princes.  Animated  by  this  powerful  co- 
operation, the  Swedes  and  Germans  awoke  from  the  con- 
sternation, and  hoped,  SAVord  in  hand,  to  obtain  a  more 
honorable  peace  than  that  of  Prague.  Abandoned  by 
their  confederates,  who  had  been  reconciled  to  the  Em- 
peror, they  formed  a  still  closer  alliance  with  France, 
which  increased  her  support  with  their  growing  necessities, 
at  the  same  time  taking  a  more  active  although  secret 
share  in  the  German  war,  until  at  last  she  threw  off  the 
mask  altogether,  and  in  her  own  name  made  an  unequiv- 
ocal declaration  of  war  against  the  Emperor. 

To  leave  Sweden  at  full  liberty  to  act  against  Austria, 
France  commenced  her  operations  by  liberating  it  from 
all  fear  of  a  Polish  war.  By  means  of  the  Count  d'Avaux, 
its  minister,  an  agreement  was  concluded  between  the  two 
powers  at  Stummsdorf  in  Prussia,  by  which  the  truce  was 
prolonged  for  twenty-six  years,  though  not  without  a 
great  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  Swedes,  who  ceded  by 
a  single  stroke  of  the  pen  almost  the  whole  of  Polish 
Prussia,  the  dear-bought  conquest  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
The  treaty  of  Beerwald  was,  Avith  certain  modifications, 
which  circumstances  rendered  necessary,  rencAved  at  dif- 
ferent times  at  Compiegne,  and  afterwards  atWismar  and 
Hamburg.  France  had  already  come  to  a  rupture  Avith 
Spain  in  May,  1635,  and  the  vigorous  attack  which  it 
made  upon  that  poAver  deprived  the  Emperor  of  his  most 
valuable  auxiliaries  from  the  Netherlands.  By  supporting 
the  Landgrave  William  of  Cassel  and  Duke  Bernard  of 
Weimar  the  Swedes  Avere  enabled  to  act  Avith  more  vigor 
upon  the  Elbe  and  the  Danube,  and  a  diversion  upon  tlie 
llhine  compelled  the  Emperor  to  divide  his  force. 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  335 

At  length  the  Elector,  having  formed  a  junction  with 
the  Imperial  General  Hatzfeld,  advanced  against  Magde- 
burg, which  Banner  in  vain  hastened  to  relieve.  The 
united  army  of  the  Imperialists  and  the  Saxons  now 
spread  itself  over  Brandenburg,  wrested  several  places 
from  the  Swedes,  and  almost  drove  them  to  the  Baltic. 
But,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  Banner,  who  had  been 
given  up  as  lost,  attacked  the  allies  on  the  24th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1636,  at  Wittstock,  where  a  bloody  battle  took 
place.  The  onset  was  terrific,  and  the  whole  force  of  the 
enemy  was  directed  against  the  right  wing  of  the  Swedes, 
which  was  led  by  Banner  in  person.  The  contest  was 
long  maintained  with  equal  animosity  and  obstinacy  on 
both  sides.  There  was  not  a  squadron  among  the  Swedes 
which  did  not  return  ten  times  to  the  charge,  to  be  as 
often  repulsed,  when  at  last  Banner  was  obliged  to  retire 
before  the  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy.  His  left  wing 
sustained  the  combat  until  night,  and  the  second  line  of 
the  Swedes,  which  had  not  as  yet  been  engaged,  was  pre- 
pared to  renew  it  the  next  morning.  But  the  Elector 
did  not  wait  for  a  second  attack.  His  army  was  ex- 
hausted by  the  efforts  of  the  preceding  day ;  and  as  the 
drivers  had  fled  with  the  horses  his  artilleiy  was  un- 
serviceable. He  accordingly  retreated  in  the  night  witli 
Count  Hatzfeld  and  relinquished  the  ground  to  the 
Swedes.  About  five  thousand  of  the  allies  fell  upon  the 
field,  exclusive  of  those  who  were  killed  in  the  pursuit, 
or  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  exasperated  peasantry. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  standards  and  colors,  twenty- 
three  pieces  of  cannon,  the  whole  baggage  and  silver 
plate  of  the  Elector  were  captured,  and  more  than  two 
tliousand  men  taken  prisoners.  This  brilliant  victory, 
achieved  over  an  enemy  far  superior  in  numbers,  and  in 
a  very  advantageous  position,  restored  the  Swedes  at  once 
to  their  former  reputation  ;  their  enemies  were  discour- 
aged and  their  friends  inspired  with  new  hopes.  Banner 
instantly  followed  up  this  decisive  success,  and,  hastily 
crossing  the  Elbe,  drove  the  Imperialists  before  him 
through  Thuringia  and  Hesse  into  Westphalia.  He  then 
returned  and  took  up  his  winter  quarters  in  Saxony. 

But,  without  the  material  aid  furnished  by  the  diver- 


336  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

sion  upon  tlie  Rhine,  and  the  activity  there  of  Duke 
Bernard  and  the  French,  these  important  successes  would 
have  been  unattainable.  Duke  Bernard,  after  the  defeat 
of  Nordlingen,  reorganized  his  broken  army  at  Wetterau, 
but,  abandoned  by  the  confederates  of  the  League  of 
Heilbronn,  which  had  been  dissolved  by  the  peace  of 
Prague,  and  receiving  but  little  support  from  the  Swedes, 
he  found  himself  unable  to  maintain  an  army  or  to  per- 
form any  enterprise  of  importance.  The  defeat  at  Nord- 
lingen had  terminated  all  his  hopes  on  the  Duchy  of 
Franconia,  Avhile  the  weakness  of  the  Swedes  destroyed 
the  chance  of  retrieving  his  fortunes  through  their  assist- 
ance. Tired,  too,  of  the  constraint  imposed  upon  him  by 
the  imperious  chancellor,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
France,  who  could  easily  supply  him  with  money,  the 
only  aid  which  he  required ;  and  France  readily  acceded 
to  his  proposals.  Richelieu  desired  nothing  so  much  as 
to  diminish  the  influence  of  the  Swedes  in  the  German 
war,  and  to  obtain  the  direction  of  it  for  himself.  To 
secure  this  end  nothing  appeared  more  effectual  than  to 
detach  from  the  Swedes  their  bravest  general,  to  win  him 
to  the  interests  of  France,  and  to  secure  for  the  execu- 
tion of  its  projects  the  services  of  his  arm.  From  a  prince 
like  Bernard,  who  could  not  maintain  himself  without 
foreign  support,  France  had  nothing  to  fear,  since  no 
success,  however  brilliant,  could  render  him  independent 
of  that  crown.  Bernard  himself  came  into  France,  and 
in  October,  1635,  concluded  a  treaty  at  St.  Germaine  en 
Laye,  not  as  a  Swedish  general,  but  in  his  own  name,  by 
which  it  was  stipulated  that  he  should  receive  for  himself  a 
yearly  pension  of  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  livres, 
and  four  millions  for  the  support  of  his  army,  which  he  Avas 
to  command  under  orders  of  the  French  king.  To  in- 
flame his  zeal,  and  to  accelerate  the  conquest  of  Alsace, 
France  did  not  hesitate,  by  a  secret  article,  to  promise 
him  that  province  for  his  services;  a  promise  which 
Riclielieu  had  little  intention  of  performing,  and  which 
the  duke  also  estimated  at  its  real  worth.  But  Bernard 
confided  in  his  good  fortune  and  in  his  arms,  and  met 
artifice  Avith  dissimulation.  If  he  could  onge  succeed  in 
wresting  Alsace  from  the  enemy  he  did  not  despair  of 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  337 

being  able,  in  case  of  need,  to  maintain  it  also  against  a 
friend.  He  now  raised  an  army  at  the  expense  of  France, 
which  he  commanded  nominally  under  the  orders  of  tlint 
power,  but  in  reality  without  any  limitation  whatever, 
and  without  having  wholly  abandoned  his  engagements 
with  Sweden.  He  began  his  operations  upon  the  Khine, 
where  another  French  army,  under  Cardinal  Lavalette, 
had  already,  in  1635,  commenced  hostilities  against  the 
Emperor. 

Against  this  force  the  main  body  of  the  Imperialists, 
after  the  great  victory  of  Nordlingen  and  the  reduction 
of  Swabia  and  Franconia,  had  advanced  under  tl}e  com- 
mand of  Gallas,  had  driven  them  as  far  as  Metz,  cleared 
the  Rhine,  and  took  from  the  Swedes  the  towns  of  Mentz 
and  Frankenthal,  of  which  they  were  in  possession.  But 
frustrated  by  the  vigorous  resistance  of  the  French  in  his 
main  object,  of  taking  up  his  winter  quarters  in  France, 
he  led  back  his  exhausted  troops  into  Alsace  and  Swabia. 
At  the  opening  of  the  next  campaign  he  passed  the 
Rhine  at  Breysach  and  prepared  to  carry  the  war  into 
the  interior  of  France.  He  actually  entered  Burgundy, 
while  the  Spaniards  from  the  Netherlands  made  progress 
in  Picardy ;  and  John  De  Werth,  a  formidable  general 
of  the  League  and  a  celebrated  partisan,  pushed  his 
march  into  Champagne  and  spread  consternation  even  to 
the  gates  of  Paris.  But  an  insignificant  fortress  in 
Franche  Comte  completely  checked  tlie  Imperialists, 
and  they  were  obliged  a  second  time  to  abandon  their 
enterprise. 

The  activity  of  Duke  Bernard  had  hitherto  been  im- 
peded by  his  dependence  on  a  French  general  more 
suited  to  the  priestly  robe  than  to  the  baton  of  command ; 
and  although  in  conjunction  with  him  he  conquered 
Alsace  Saverne  he  found  himself  unable  in  the  years 
1636  and  1637  to  maintain  his  position  upon  the  Rhine. 
The  ill-success  of  the  French  arms  in  the  Netherlands 
had  checked  the  activity  of  operations  in  Alsace  and 
Breisgau,  but  in  1638  the  war  in  that  quarter  took  a  more 
brilliant  tui*n.  Relieved  from  his  former  restraint,  and 
with  unlimited  command  of  his  troops,  Duke  Bernard  in 
the  beginning  of  February  left  his  winter  quarters  in  the 


338  THE    THIRTr    YEAIIS'    WAR. 

Bishopric  of  Basle  and  unexpectedly  appeared  upon  the 
Khine,  where  at  this  rude  season  of  the  year  an  attack 
was  little  anticipated.  The  forest  towns  of  Laufenburg, 
Waldshut,  and  Seckingen  were  surprised  and  Rhinefeldt 
besieged.  The  Duke  of  Savelli,  the  imperial  general 
who  commanded  in  that  quarter,  hastened  by  forced 
inarches  to  the  relief  of  this  important  place,  succeeded 
in  raising  the  siege,  and  compelled  the  Duke  of  Weimar, 
with  great  loss,  to  retire.  But,  conti-ary  to  all  human 
expectation,  he  appeared  on  the  third  day  after  (21st  Feb- 
ruary, 1638)  before  the  Imperialists  in  order  of  battle, 
and  defeated  them  in  a  bloody  engagement,  in  which  the 
four  imperial  generals,  Savelli,  John  De  Werth,  Enke- 
ford,  and  Sperreuter,  with  two  thousand  men,  were  taken 
prisoners.  Two  of  these,  De  Werth  and  Enkeford,  were 
afterwards  sent  by  Richelieu's  orders  into  France  in  order 
to  flatter  the  vanity  of  the  French  by  the  sight  of  such 
distinguished  prisoners,  and  by  the  pomp  of  military 
trophies  to  withdraw  the  attention  of  the  populace  from 
the  public  distress.  The  captured  standards  and  colors 
were,  with  the  same  view,  carried  in  solemn  procession 
to  the  church  of  Notre  Dame,  thrice  exhibited  before  the 
altar,  and  committed  to  sacred  custody. 

The  war  was  now  prosecuted  with  increasing  activity. 
By  the  treaty  of  Prague  the  Emperor  had  lessened  the 
number  of  his  adversaries  within  the  Empire ;  though  at 
the  same  time  the  zeal  and  activity  of  his  foreign  enemies 
had  been  augmented  by  it.  In  Germany  his  influence 
was  almost  unlimited,  for,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
states,  he  had  rendered  himself  absolute  master  of  the 
German  body  and  its  resources,  and  was  again  enabled  to 
act  in  the  character  of  emperor  and  sovereign.  The  first 
fruit  of  his  power  was  the  elevation  of  his  son,  Ferdinand 
III.,  to  the  dignity  of  King  of  the  Romans,  to  which  he 
was  elected  by  a  decided  majority  of  votes  notwithstand- 
ing the  opposition  of  Treves  and  of  the  heirs  of  the 
Elector  Palatine.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  exas- 
perated the  Swedes  to  desperation,  had  armed  the  power 
of  France  against  him,  and  drawn  its  troops  into  the 
heart  of  the  kingdom.  France  and  Sweden,  with  their 
German  allies,   formed   from  this  moment  one  firm  and 


THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAU.  339 

compactly-united  power ;  the  Emperor,  with  the  German 
states  which  adhered  to  him,  were  equally  firm  aud  united. 
The  Swedes,  who  no  longer  fought  for  Germany  but  for 
their  own  lives,  showed  no  more  indulgence;  relieved 
from  the  necessity  of  consulting  their  German  allies,  or 
accounting  to  them  for  the  plans  which  they  adopted, 
they  acted  with  more  precipitation,  rapidity,  and  boldness. 
Battles,  though  less  decisive,  became  more  obstinate  and 
bloody ;  greater  achievements,  both  in  bravery  aud  mili- 
tary skill,  were  performed ;  but  they  were  but  insulated 
efforts;  and  being  neither  dictated  by  any  consistent 
plan  nor  improved  by  any  commanding  spirit,  had  com- 
paratively little  influence  upon  the  coui'se  of  the  war. 

Saxony  had  bound  herself  by  the  treaty  of  Prague  to 
expel  the  Swedes  from  Germany.  From  this  moment 
the  banners  of  the  Saxons  and  Imi^erialists  were  united ; 
the  former  confederates  were  converted  into  implacable 
enemies.  The  Archbishopric  of  Magdeburg,  which  by  the 
treaty  was  ceded  to  the  Prince  of  Saxony,  was  still  held 
by  the  Swedes,  and  every  attempt  to  acquire  it  by  nego- 
tiations had  2^i'C)ved  ineffectual.  Hostilities  commenced 
by  the  Elector  of  Saxony  recalling  all  his  subjects  from 
the  army  of  Banner,  which  was  encamped  upon  the  Elbe. 
The  officers,  long  irritated  by  the  accumulation  of  their 
arrears,  obeyed  the  summons  and  evacuated  one  quarter 
after  another.  As  the  Saxons  at  the  same  time  made  a 
movement  towards  Mecklenburg  to  take  Domitz,  and  to 
drive  the  Swedes  from  Pomerania  and  the  Baltic,  Banner 
suddenly  marched  thither,  relieved  Domitz  and  totally 
defeated  the  Saxon  General  Baudissin,  Avith  seven  thou- 
sand men,  of  whom  one  thousand  were  slain,  and  about 
the  same  number  taken  prisoners.  Reinforced  by  the 
troops  and  artillery  which  had  hitherto  been  employed 
in  Polish  Prussia,  but  which  the  treaty  of  Stummsdorf 
rendered  unnecessary,  this  brave  and  impetuous  general 
made  the  following  year  (1636)  a  sudden  inroad  into  the 
Electorate  of  Saxony,  where  he  gratified  his  invetei-ate 
hatred  of  the  Saxons  by  the  most  destructive  ravages. 
Irritated  by  the  memory  of  old  grievances  which,  during 
their  common  campaigns,  he  and  the  Swedes  had  suffered 
from  the  haughtiness  of  the  Saxons,  aud  now  exasperated 


340  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

to  the  utmost  by  the  late  defection  of  the  Elector,  they 
wreaked  upon  the  unfortunate  inhabitants  all  their  ran- 
cor. Against  Austria  and  Bavaria  the  Swedish  soldier 
had  fought  from  a  sense,  as  it  were,  of  duty ;  but  against 
the  Saxons  they  contended  with  all  the  energy  of  private 
animosity  and  personal  revenge,  detesting  them  as  de- 
serters and  traitors  ;  for  the  hatred  of  former  friends  is 
of  all  the  most  fierce  and  irreconcilable.  The  powerfid 
diversion  made  by  the  Duke  of  Weimar  and  the  Land- 
grave of  Hesse  upon  the  Rhine  and  in  Westphalia  pre- 
vented the  Emperor  from  affording  the  necessary  assist- 
ance to  Saxony,  and  left  the  whole  Electorate  exposed  to 
the  destructive  ravages  of  Banner's  army. 

The  taking  of  Rhinefeldt,  Roteln,  and  Fribourg  was 
the  immediate  consequence  of  the  duke's  victory.  His 
army  now  increased  by  considerable  recruits,  and  his  pro- 
jects expanded  in  proportion  as  fortune  favored  him. 
The  fortress  of  Breysach  upon  the  Rhine  was  looked 
upon  as  holding  the  command  of  that  river  and  as  the 
key  of  Alsace.  No  place  in  this  quarter  was  of  more 
importance  to  the  Emperor,  and  upon  none  had  more 
care  been  bestowed.  To  protect  Breysach  was  the  prin- 
cipal destination  of  the  Italian  army  uiider  the  Duke  of 
Feria ;  the  strength  of  its  works  and  its  natural  defences 
bade  defiance  to  assault,  while  the  imperial  generals  who 
commanded  in  that  quarter  had  orders  to  retain  it  at  any 
cost.  But  the  duke,  trusting  to  his  good  fortune,  re- 
solved to  attempt  the  siege.  Its  strength  rendered  it 
impregnable ;  it  could,  therefore,  only  be  starved  into  a 
sui-render ;  and  this  was  facilitated  by  the  carelessness  of 
the  commandant,  who,  expecting  no  attack,  had  been 
selling  off  his  stores.  As  under  these  circumstances  the 
town  could  not  long  hold  out  it  must  be  immediately 
relieved  or  victualled.  Accordingly  the  imperial  General 
Goetz  rapidly  advanced  at  the  head  of  twelve  thousand 
men,  accompanied  by  three  thousand  wagons  loaded  with 
provisions,  which  he  intended  to  throw  into  the  place. 
But  he  was  attacked  with  such  vigor  by  Duke  Bernard 
at  Witteweyer  that  he  lost  his  whole  force,  except  three 
thousand  men,  together  with  the  entire  transport.  A 
similar  fate   at    Ochsenfeld,  near   Thann,   overtook    the 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  341 

Duke  of  Lorraine,  who,  with  five  or  six  thousand 
men,  advanced  to  relieve  the  fortress.  After  a  third 
attempt  of  General  Goetz  for  the  relief  of  Breysach  had 
j^roved  ineffectual  the  fortress,  reduced  to  the  greatest 
extremity  by  famine,  surrendered,  after  a  blockade  of 
four  months,  on  the  17th  December,  1638,  to  its  equally 
persevering  and  humane  conqueror. 

The  capture  of  Breysach  opened  a  boundless  field  to 
the  ambition  of  the  Duke  of  Weimar,  and  the  romance  of 
his  hopes  was  fast  approaching  to  reality.  Far  from 
intending  to  surrender  his  conquests  in  France  he  des- 
tined Breysacli  for  himself,  and  revealed  this  intention  by 
exacting  allegiance  from  the  vanquished  in  his  own  name, 
and  not  in  that  of  any  other  power.  Intoxicated  by  his 
past  success,  and  excited  by  the  boldest  hopes,  he  believed 
that  he  should  be  able  to  maintain  his  conquests  even 
against  France  herself.  At  a  time  when  everything 
depended  upon  bravery,  when  even  personal  strength 
was  of  importance,  when  troops  and  generals  were  of 
more  importance  than  territories,  it  was  natural  for  a 
hero  like  Bei'nard  to  place  confidence  in  his  own  powers, 
and,  at  the  head  of  an  excellent  army,  who  under  his 
command  had  proved  invincible,  to  believe  himself  capa- 
ble of  accomplishing  the  boldest  and  largest  designs.  In 
order  to  secure  himself  one  friend  among  the  crowd  of 
enemies  whom  he  was  about  to  provoke,  he  turned  his 
eyes  upon  the  Landgravine  Amelia  of  Hesse,  the  widow 
of  the  lately  desceased  Landgrave  William,  a  princess 
whose  talents  were  equal  to  her  courage,  and  who,  along 
with  her  hand,  would  bestow  valuable  conquests,  an 
extensive  principality,  and  a  well-disciplined  army.  By 
the  union  of  the  conquests  of  Hesse  with  his  own  upon 
the  Rhine,  and  the  junction  of  their  forces,  a  power  of 
some  importance,  and  perhaps  a  third  party,  might  be 
formed  in  Germany,  which  might  decide  the  fate  of  the 
war.  But  a  premature  death  put  a  period  to  these  extens- 
ive schemes. 

"  Courage,  Father  Joseph,  Breysach  is  ours ! "  whis- 
pered Richelieu  in  the  ear  of  the  Capuchin  who  had  long 
held  himself  in  readiness  to  be  despatched  into  that 
quarter,  so  delighted  was  he  with  this  joyful  intelligence. 


342  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

Already  in  imagination  he  held  Alsace,  Breisgau,  and  all 
the  frontiers  in  Austria  in  that  quarter  without  regard  to 
his  promise  to  Duke  Bernard.  But  the  firm  determina- 
tion whicli  the  latter  had  unequivocally  shown  to  keep 
Breysach  for  himself  greatly  embarrassed  the  cardinal, 
and  no  efforts  were  spared  to  retain  the  victorious  Ber- 
nard in  the  interests  of  France.  He  was  invited  to  court 
to  witness  the  lionors  by  which  his  triumph  was  to  be 
commemorated;  but  he  perceived  and  shunned  the  se- 
ductive snare.  The  cardinal  even  went  so  far  as  to  offer 
him  the  hand  of  his  niece  in  marriage  ;  but  the  proud 
German  prince  declined  the  offer,  and  refused  to  sully 
the  blood  of  Saxony  by  a  misalliance.  He  was  now 
considered  as  a  dangerous  enemy  and  treated  as  such. 
His  subsidies  were  withdrawn ;  and  the  governor  of  Brey- 
sach and  his  principal  officers  were  bribed,  at  least  upon 
the  event  of  the  duke's  death,  to  take  possession  of  his 
conquests  and  to  secure  his  troops.  These  intrigues 
were  no  secret  to  the  duke,  and  the  precautions  he 
took  in  the  conquered  places  clearly  bespoke  the  distrust 
of  France.  But  tliis  misunderstanding  with  the  French 
court  had  the  most  prejudicial  influence  upon  his  future 
operations.  The  preparations  he  was  obliged  to  make  in 
order  to  secure  his  conquests  against  an  attack  on  the 
side  of  France  compelled  him  to  divide  his  military 
strength,  while  the  sto])page  of  his  subsidies  delayed  his 
appearance  in  the  field.  It  had  been  his  intention  to 
cross  the  Rhine,  to  support  the  Swedes,  and  to  act  against 
the  Emperor  and  Bavaria  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube. 
He  had  already  communicated  his  plan  of  operations  to 
Banner,  who  was  about  to  carry  the  war  into  the  Austrian 
territories,  and  had  promised  to  relieve  him  so,  when  a 
sudden  death  cut  short  his  heroic  career,  in  the  thirty 
sixth  year  of  his  age,  at  Neuburg  upon  the  Rhine  (in 
July,  1639). 

He  died  of  a  pestilential  disorder,  which,  in  the  course 
of  two  days,  had  carried  off  nearly  four  hundred  men  in 
his  cam]:).  The  black  sjDOts  which  appeared  upon  his 
body,  Ills  own  dying  expressions,  and  the  advantages 
which  France  was  likely  to  reap  from  his  sudden  decease, 
gave  rise  to  a  suspicion  that  he  had  been  removed  by 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  343 

poison  —  a  suspicion  sufficiently  refuted  by  the  symptoms 
of  his  disorder.  In  him  the  allies  lost  their  greatest 
general  after  Gustavus  Adolphus,  France  a  formidable 
competitor  for  Alsace,  and  the  Emperor  his  most  dan- 
gerous enemy.  Trained  to  the  duties  of  a  soldier  and  a 
general  in  the  school  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  he  success- 
fully imitated  his  eminent  model,  and  wanted  only  a 
longer  life  to  equal  if  not  to  surpass  it.  With  the 
bravery  of  the  soldier  he  united  the  calm  and  cool  pene- 
tration of  the  general,  the  persevering  fortitude  of  the 
man  with  the  daring  resolution  of  youth  ;  with  the  wild 
ardor  of  the  warrior,  the  sober  dignity  of  the  prince,  tlie 
moderation  of  the  sage,  and  the  conscientious  of  the 
man  of  honor.  Discouraged  by  no  misfortune,  he  quickly 
rose  again  in  full  vigor  from  the  severest  defeats ;  no 
obstacles  could  check  his  enterprise,  no  disappointments 
conquer  his  indomitable  perseverance.  His  genius,  per- 
haps, soared  after  unattainable  objects;  but  the  prudence 
of  such  men  is  to  be  measured  by  a  different  standard 
from  that  of  ordinary  people.  Capable  of  accomplishing 
more,  he  might  venture  to  form  more  daring  plans. 
Bernard  affords,  in  modern  history,  a  spendid  example 
of  those  days  of  cliivalry,  when  personal  greatness  had  its 
full  weight  and  influence,  when  individual  bravery  could 
conquer  provinces,  and  the  heroic  exploits  of  a  German 
knight  raised  him  even  to  the  imperial  throne. 

The  best  part  of  the  duke's  possessions  were  his  array, 
which,  together  with  Alsace,  he  bequeathed  to  his  brother 
William.  But  to  this  army,  both  France  and  Sweden 
thought  that  they  had  well-grounded  claims ;  the  latter, 
because  it  had  been  raised  in  the  name  of  that  crown  and 
had  done  homage  to  it ;  the  former  because  it  had  been 
supported  by  its  subsidies.  The  Electoral  Prince  of  the 
Palatinate  also  negotiated  for  its  services,  and  attempted, 
first  by  his  agents,  and  latterly  in  his  own  person,  to  win 
it  over  to  his  interests,  with  the  view  of  employing  it  in 
the  reconquest  of  his  territories.  Even  the  Emperor  en- 
deavored to  secure  it,  a  circumstance  the  less  surprising, 
when  we  reflect  that  at  this  time  the  justice  of  the  cause 
was  comparatively  unimportant,  and  the  extent  of  the 
recompense  the  main  object  to  which  the  soldier  looked; 


344  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

and  when  bravery,  like  every  other  commodity,  was 
disposed  of  to  the  highest  bidder.  But  France,  riclier 
and  more  determined,  outbade  all  competitors ;  it  bought 
over  General  Erlach,  the  commander  of  Breysach,  and  the 
other  officers,  who  soon  f)laced  that  fortress,  with  the 
wliole  army,  in  their  hands. 

The  young  Palatine,  Prince  Charles  Louis,  who  had 
already  made  an  unsuccessful  campaign  against  the 
Emj^eror,  saw  his  liopes  again  deceived.  Although  in- 
tending to  do  France  so  ill  a  service  as  to  compete  with 
her  for  Bernard's  army  he  had  the  imprudence  to  travel 
through  that  kingdom.  The  cardinal,  who  dreaded  tlie 
justice  of  the  Palatine's  cause,  was  glad  to  seize  any 
opportunity  to  frustrate  his  views.  He  accordingly  caused 
him  to  be  seized  at  Moulin,  in  violation  of  the  law  of 
nations,  and  did  not  set  him  at  liberty  until  he  learned 
that  the  army  of  the  Dulsi*  of  Weimar  had  been  secured. 
France  was  now  in  possession  of  a  numerous  and  well- 
disciplined  army  in  Germany,  and  from  this  moment 
began  to  make  open  war  upon  the  Emperor. 

But  it  was  no  longer  against  Ferdinand  II.  that  its  hos- 
tilities were  to  be  conducted,  for  that  prince  had  died  in 
February,  1637,  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age.  The  Avar 
which  his  ambition  had  kindled,  however,  survived  him. 
During  a  reign  of  eighteen  years  he  had  never  once  laid 
aside  the  sword,  nor  tasted  the  blessings  of  peace  as  long 
as  his  hand  swayed  the  imperial  sceptre.  Endowed  with 
the  qualities  of  a  good  sovereign,  adorned  with  many  of 
those  virtues  which  insure  the  happiness  of  a  people,  and 
by  nature  gentle  and  humane,  we  see  him  from  erroneous 
ideas  of  the  monarch's  duty  become  at  once  the  instru- 
ment and  the  victim  of  the  evil  passions  of  others,  hia 
benevolent  intentions  frustrated,  and  the  friend  of  justice 
converted  into  the  oppressor  of  mankind,  the  enemy  of 
peace,  and  the  scourge  of  his  people.  Amiable  in  domestic 
life,  and  respectable  as  a  sovereign,  but  in  his  policy  ill- 
advised,  while  he  gained  the  love  of  his  Roman  Catholic 
subjects,  he  incurred  the  execration  of  the  Protestants. 
History  exhibits  many  and  greater  despots  than  Ferdi- 
nand II.,  yet  he  alone  has  had  the  unfortunate  celebrity 
of    kindling    a  thirty   years'   war;    but   to   produce   its 


THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAR.  345 

lamentable  consequences  his  ambition  must  have  been 
seconded  by  a  kindred  spirit  of  the  age,  a  congenial  state 
of  previous  circumstances,  and  existing  seeds  of  discord. 
At  a  less  turbulent  period  the  spark  would  have  found  no 
fuel,  and  the  peacefulness  of  the  age  would  have  choked 
the  voice  of  individual  ambition ;  but  now  the  flash  fell 
upon  a  pile  of  accumulated  combustibles,  and  Europe  was 
in  flames. 

His  son,  Ferdinand  III.,  who  a  few  months  before  his 
father's  death  had  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  King  of 
the  Romans,  inherited  his  throne,  his  principles,  and  the 
war  which  he  had  caused.  But  Ferdinand  III.  had  been 
a  closer  witness  of  the  sufferings  of  the  people  and  the 
devastation  of  the  country,  and  felt  more  keenly  and 
ardently  the  necessity  of  peace.  Less  influenced  by  the 
Jesuits  and  the  Spaniards,  and  more  moderate  towards 
the  religious  views  of  others,  he  was  more  likely  than  his 
father  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason.  He  did  so,  and 
ultimately  restored  to  Europe  the  blessing  of  peace,  but 
not  till  after  a  contest  of  eleven  years  waged  with  sword 
and  pen  ;  not  till  after  he  had  experienced  the  impossi- 
bility of  resistance,  and  necessity  had  laid  upon  him  its 
stern  laws. 

Fortune  favored  him  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign, 
and  his  arms  were  victorious  against  the  Swedes.  The 
latter,  under  the  command  of  the  victorious  Banner,  had 
after  their  success  at  Wittstock  taken  up  their  winter 
quarters  in  Saxony,  and  the  campaign  of  1637  ojiened 
with  the  siege  of  Leipzig.  The  vigorous  resistance  of 
the  garrison  and  the  approach  of  the  Electoral  and 
Imperial  armies  saved  the  town,  and  Bannei",  to  prevent 
his  communication  with  the  Elbe  being  cut  off,  was  com- 
pelled to  retreat  into  Torgau.  But  the  superior  number 
of  the  Imperialists  drove  him  even  from  that  quarter; 
and  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  hemmed  in  by  rivers,  and 
suffering  from  famine,  he  had  no  course  open  to  him  but 
to  attempt  a  highly  dangerous  retreat  into  Pomerunia,  of 
which  the  boldness  and  successful  issue  border  upon 
romance.  Tlie  whole  army  crossed  the  Oder  at  a  ford 
near  Furstenberg ;  and,  the  soldiers,  Avading  up  to  the 
neck  in  water,  dragged   the  artillery  across,   when  the 


346  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

horses  refused  to  draw.   Banner  bad  expected  to  be  joined 
by  General  Wrangel  on  the  farther  side  of  the  Oder  in 
Pomerania;  and,  in  conjunction  with  him,  to  be  able  to 
make  head  against  the   enemy.     But  Wrangel  did  not 
appear,  and  in  his  stead  he  found  an  imperial  army  posted 
at  Landsberg  with  a  view  to   cut  off  the  retreat  of  the 
Swedes.     Banner  now  saw  that  he  had  fallen  into  a  dan- 
gerous snare  from  which  escape  appeared  impossible.     In 
his  rear  lay  an  exhausted  country,  the  Imperialists,  and 
the  Oder  on  his  left ;  the  Oder,  too,  guarded  by  the  Impe- 
rial General  Bucheim,  offered  no  retreat ;  in  front  Lands- 
berg, Custrin,  the  Warta,  and  a  hostile  army ;  and  on  the 
right  Poland,  in  which,  notwithstanding  the  truce,  little 
confidence  could  be  placed.     In  these  circumstances  his 
position    seemed    hopeless,    and    the    Imj^erialists    were 
already  triumphing  in  the  certainty  of  his  fall.     Banner, 
with  just  indignation,  accused  the  French  as  the  authors  of 
this  misfortune.    They  had  neglected  to  make,  according 
to  their  promise,  a  diversion  upon  the  Rhine,  and  by  their 
inaction  allowed  the  Emperor  to  combine  his  whole  force 
upon  the  Swedes.     "  When  the  day  comes,"  cried  the  in- 
censed general  to  the  French  commissioner,  who  followed 
the  camp,  "  that  the  Swedes  and  Germans  join  their  arms 
against  France  we  shall  cross  the  Rhine  with  less  cere- 
mony."    But  reproaches  were    now    useless ;    what   the 
emergency  demanded  was  energy  and  resolution.     In  the 
hope   of    drawing    the   enemy    by    stratagem    from   the 
Oder,  Banner  pretended  to   march   towards  Poland,  and 
despatched  the  greater  part  of  his  baggage  in  this  direc- 
tion, with  his  own  wife  and  those  of  the   other  officers. 
The  Imperialists  immediately  broke  up  their  camp  and 
hurried  towards  the  Polish  frontier  to  block  up  the  route  ; 
Bucheim  left  his  station,  and  tiie  Oder  was  stripped  of  its 
defenders.      On   a    sudden,   and  under   cloud    of    night. 
Banner  turned  towards  that  river,  and  crossed  it  about  a 
mile  above  Custrin,  with  his  troops,  baggage,  and  artil- 
lery, without  bridges  or  vessels,  as  he  had  done  before  at 
Furstenberg.     He  reached  Pomerania  Avithout  loss,  and 
prepared    to   share   with    Wrangel  the    defence    of   that 
province. 

But  the  Imperialists,  imder  the  command  of  Gallas,  en- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  347 

tered   that    duchy   at   Ribses,   and  overran  it  by   their 
superior  strength.     Usedom  and  Wolgast  were  taken  by 
storm,  Demniin  capitulated,  and  the  Swedes  were  driven 
far  into  Lower  Pomerania.     It  was,  too,  more  important 
for  them  at  this  moment  than  ever  to  maintain  a  footing 
in  that  coimtry,  for  Bogislaus  XIV.  had  died  that  year, 
and  Sweden  must  prepare  to  establish  its  title  to  Pom- 
erania.    To  prevent  the  Elector  of   Brandenburg  from 
making  good  the  title  to  that  duchy,  which  the  treaty  of 
Prague  had  given  hira,  Sweden  exerted  her  utmost  ener- 
gies7  and    supported    its  generals  to   the    extent  of  her 
ability,  both  with  troops  and  money.     In  other  quarters 
of  the  kingdom  the  affairs  of  the  Swedes  began  to  wear  a 
more  favorable  aspect,  and  to  recover  from  the  humilia- 
tion into  which  they  had  been  thrown  by  the  inaction  of 
France   and    the    desertion    of   their   allies.      For,    after 
their  hasty  retreat  into   Pomerania,  they  had  lost  one 
place   after  another  in   Upper  Saxony;  the  Princes   of 
Mecklenburg,  closely  pressed  by  the  troops  _  of  the  Em- 
peror, began   to  lean  to  the  side  of  Austria,  and  even 
George,   Duke    of   Lunenburg,   declared    against    them. 
Ehrenbreitstein    Avas    starved   into   a   surrender   by   the 
Bavarian  General  de  Wertb,  and  the  Austrians  possessed 
themselves  of  all  the  works  which  had  been  thrown  up 
on  the  Rhine.     France  had  been  the  sufferer  in  the  con- 
test with  Spain ;  and  the  event  had  by  no  means  justified 
the  pompous  expectations  which  had   accompanied  the 
opening  of  the  campaign.     Every  place  which  the  Swedes 
had  held  in  the  interior  of  Germany  was  lost ;  and  only 
the  principal  towns  in  Pomerania  still  remained  in  their 
hands.     But  a  single    campaign  raised  them   from  this 
state  of  humiliation ;  and  the  vigorous  diversion,  which 
the  victorious  Bernard  had  effected  upon  the  Rhine,  gave 
quite  a  new  turn  to  affairs. 

The  misunderstandings  between  France  and  Sweden 
were  now  at  last  adjusted,  and  the  old  treaty  between 
these  powers  confirmed  at  Hamburg,  with  fresh  advan- 
tages for  Sweden.  In  Hesse  the  politic  Landgravine 
Amelia  had,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Estates,  as- 
sumed the  government  after  the  death  of  lier  liusband, 
and  resolutely  maintained  her  rights  against  the  Emperor 


348  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

and  the  House  of  Darmstadt.  Already  zealously  attached 
to  the  Swedish  Protestant  party  on  religious  grounds, 
she  only  awaited  a  favorable  opportunity  openly  to  declare 
herself.  By  artful  delays  and  by  prolonging  the  negotia- 
tions with  the  Emperor  she  had  succeeded  in  keeping 
him  inactive,  till  she  had  concluded  a  secret  compact  with 
France,  and  the  victories  of  Duke  Bernard  had  given  a 
favorable  turn  to  the  affairs  of  the  Protestants.  She  now 
at  once  threw  off  the  mask,  and  renewed  her  former  alli- 
ance with  the  Swedish  crown.  The  Electoral  Prince  of 
the  Palatinate  was  also  stimulated  by  the  success  of 
Bernard  to  try  his  fortune  against  the  common  enemy. 
Raising  troops  in  Holland  with  English  money,  he 
formed  a  magazine  at  Meppen  and  joined  the  Swedes  in 
Westphalia.  His  magazine  was,  however,  quickly  lost ; 
his  army  defeated  near  Flotha  by  Count  Hatzfeld ;  but 
his  attempt  served  to  occupy  for  some  time  the  attention 
of  the  enemy,  and  thereby  facilitated  the  operations  of 
the  Swedes  in  other  quarters.  Other  friends  began  to 
appear  as  fortune  declared  in  their  favor ;  and  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  states  of  Lower  Saxony  embraced  a 
neutrality  was  of  itself  no  inconsiderable  advantage. 

Under  these  advantages,  and  reinforced  by  fourteen 
thousand  fresh  troops  from  Sweden  and  Livonia,  Banner 
opened  with  the  most  favorable  prospects  the  campaign 
of  1638.  The  Imperialists  who  were  in  possession  of 
Upper  Pomerania  and  Mecklenburg  either  abandoned 
their  positions  or  deserted  in  crowds  to  the  Swedes  to 
avoid  the  horrors  of  famine,  the  most  formidable  enemy 
in  this  exhausted  country.  The  whole  country  betwixt 
the  Elbe  and  the  Oder  was  so  desolated  by  the  past 
marchings  and  quarterings  of  the  troojis  that,  in  order  to 
support  his  army  on  its  march  into  Saxony  and  Bohemia, 
Banner  was  obliged  to  take  a  circuitous  route  from 
Lower  Pomerania  into  Lower  Saxony,  and  tlien  into  tlie 
f^lectornte  of  Saxony  tin-ough  the  territory  of  Halber- 
stadt.  The  im]iatience  of  the  Lower  Saxon  states  to 
get  rid  of  sncli  troublesome  guests  procured  him  so  ])len- 
tiful  a  supply  of  provisions  that  lie  was  provided  with 
bread  in  Mngdeburg  itself,  where  famine  liad  even  over- 
come the  natural  antipathy  of  men  to  human  flesh.     His 


THE 


THIRTY    years'    WAR.  349 


approach  spread  consternation  among  tlie  Saxons;  but 
his  views  were  directed  not  against  this  exhausted  coun- 
try, but   against  the  hereditai-y  dominions  of  the  Em- 
peror.    The  victories  of  Bernard  encouraged  him,  while 
the   prosperity   of    the   Austrian    provinces    excited   his 
hopes  of  booty.     After  defeating  tlie  Imperial  General 
Salis  at  Elsterberg,  totally  routing  the  Saxon  army  at 
Chemnitz,  and  taking  Pirna,  he  penetrated  with  irresisti- 
ble impetuosity  into  Bohemia,  crossed  the  Elbe,  threat- 
ened Prague,  took  Brandeis  and   Leutmeritz,  defeated 
General  Hofkirchen  Avith  ten  regiments,  and  spread  ter- 
ror and  devastation  through  that  defenceless  kingdom. 
Booty  was  his  sole  object,  and  wliatever  he  could  not 
carry  off  he  destroyed.     In  order  to  remove  more  of  the 
corn  the  ears  were  cut  from  the   stalks,  and  the  latter 
burnt.     Above  a  thousand  castles,  hamlets,  and  villages 
were  laid  in  ashes;  sometimes  more  than  a  hundred  were 
seen  burning  in  one  night.     From  Bohemia  he  crossed 
into  Silesia,  and  it  was  his  intention  to  carry  his  ravages 
even  into  Moravia  and   Austria.     But  to  prevent   this 
Count   Hatzfeld  was    summoned    from  Westphalia,   and 
Piccolomini   from   the    Ketherlands,  to  hasten  with   all 
speed  to  this  quarter.     The  Archduke  Leopold,  brother 
to  the  Emperor,  assumed  the  command  in  order  to  repair 
the  errors  of  his   predecessor,  Gallas,  and  to   raise   the 
army  from  the  low  ebb  to  which  it  had  fallen. 

The  result  justified  the  change,  and  the  campaign  of 
1640  appeared  to  take  a  most  unfortunate  turn  for  the 
Swedes.  They  were  successively  driven  out  of  all  their 
posts  in  Bohemia,  and,  anxious  only  to  secure  their  plun- 
der, they  precipitately  crossed  the  heights  of  Meissen. 
But  being  followed  into  Saxony  by  the  pursuing  enemy, 
and  defeated  at  Plauen,  thev  were  obhged  to  take  refuge 
in  Thuringia.  Made  masters  of  the  field  in  a  smgle 
summer,  they  were  as  rapidly  dispossessed,  but  only  to 
acquire  it  a  second  time,  and  to  hurry  from  one  extreme 
to  another.  The  army  of  Banner,  weakened  and  on  the 
brink  of  destruction  in  its  camp  at  Erfurt,  suddenly 
recovered  itself.  The  Duke  of  Lunenburg  abandoned 
the  treaty  of  Prague,  and  joined  Banner  with  the  very 
troops  which  the  year  before  had  fought  against  him. 


350  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Hesse  Cassel  sent  reinforcements,  and  the  Duke  of 
Longueville  came  to  his  support  with  the  army  of  the 
late  Duke  Bernard.  Once  more  numerically  superior  to 
the  Imperialists  Banner  offered  them  battle  near  Saal- 
feld,  but  their  leader,  Piccolomini,  prudently  declined  an 
engagement,  having  chosen  too  strong  a  position  to  be 
forced.  When  the  Bavarians  at  length  separated  from 
the  Imperialists  and  marched  towards  Franconia  Banner 
attempted  an  attack  upon  this  divided  corps,  but  the 
attempt  was  frustrated  by  the  skill  of  the  Bavarian  Gen- 
eral Von  Mercy  and  the  near  approach  of  the  main  body 
of  the  Imjierialists.  Both  armies  now  moved  into  the 
exhausted  territory  of  Hesse,  where  they  formed  in- 
trenched camps  near  each  other,  till  at  last  famine  and 
the  severity  of  tlie  winter  compelled  them  both  to  retire. 
Piccolomini  chose  the  fertile  banks  of  the  Weser  for  his 
winter  quarters,  but  being  outflanked  by  Banner  he  was 
obliged  to  give  way  to  the  Swedes  and  to  impose  on  the 
Franconian  sees  the  burden  of  maintaining  his  army. 

At  this  period  a  diet  was  held  in  Ratisbon,  where  the 
complaints  of  the  states  were  to  be  heard,  measures 
taken  for  securing  the  repose  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
question  of  peace  or  war  finally  settled.  The  presence 
of  the  Emperor,  the  majority  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
voices  in  the  Electoral  College,  the  s^reat  number  of  bish- 
ops,  and  the  withdrawal  of  several  of  the  Protestant 
votes,  gave  the  Emperor  a  complete  command  of  the 
deliberations  of  the  assembly,  and  rendered  this  diet 
anything  but  a  fair  representative  of  the  opinions  of  the 
German  Empire.  The  Protestants  with  reason  consid- 
ered it  as  a  mere  combination  of  Austria  and  its  crea- 
tui-es  against  their  party,  and  it  seemed  to  them  a  lauda- 
ble effort  to  interrupt  its  delibei'ations  and  to  dissolve 
the  Diet  itself. 

Banner  undertook  this  bold  enterprise.  His  military 
reputation  had  suffered  by  his  last  retreat  from  Bohemia, 
and  it  stood  in  need  of  some  great  exploit  to  restore  its 
former  lustre.  Without  commxxnicatinGT  his  designs  to 
any  one,  in  the  dejith  of  the  winter  of  1041,  as  soon  as 
the  roads  and  rivers  were  fi'ozen,  lie  broke  \\p  from  his 
quarters  in  Lunenburg.     Accompanied  by  Marshal  Gue- 


THE    THIRTY    YEAES'    WAR.  351 

briant,  who  commanded  the  armies  of  France  and  Wei- 
mar, he  took  the  route  towards  the  Danube,  through 
Thuringia  and  Vogtland,  and  appeared  before  Ratisbon 
ere  the  Diet  could  be  apprised  of  his  approach.  The 
consternation  of  tlie  assembly  was  indescribable,  and  in 
the  first  alarm  the  deputies  prepared  for  flight.  The 
Emperor  alone  declared  that  he  would  not  leave  the 
town,  and  encouraged  the  rest  by  his  example.  Unfor- 
tunately for  the  Swedes  a  thaw  came  on,  which  broke  up 
the  ice  upon  the  Danube  so  that  it  was  no  longer  passable 
on  foot,  while  no  boats  could  cross  it  on  account  of  the 
quantities  of  ice  which  were  swept  down  by  the  current. 
In  order  to  perform  something  and  to  humble  the  pride 
of  the  Emperor,  Banner  discourteously  fired  five  hundred 
cannon-shots  into  the  town,  which  however  did  little 
mischief.  Baffled  in  his  designs,  he  resolved  to  penetrate 
farther  into  Bavaria  and  the  defenceless  province  of 
Moravia,  where  a  rich  booty  and  comfortable  quarters 
awaited  his  troops.  Guebriant,  however,  began  to  fear 
that  the  purpose  of  the  Swedes  was  to  draw  the  army  of 
Bernard  away  from  the  Rhine  and  to  cut  off  its  commu- 
nication with  France  till  it  should  be  either  entirely  won 
over  or  incapacitated  from  acting  independently.  He 
therefore  separated  from  Banner  to  return  to  the  Maine, 
and  the  latter  Avas  exposed  to  the  whole  force  of  the 
Imperialists,  which  had  been  secretly  drawn  together 
between  Ratisbon  and  Ingoldstadt,  and  was  on  its  march 
against  him.  It  was  now  time  to  think  of  a  rapid 
retreat,  which  having  to  be  effected  in  the  face  of  an 
army  superior  in  cavalry,  and  betwixt  woods  and  rivers 
through  a  country  entirely  hostile,  appeared  almost  im- 
practicable. He  hastily  retired  towards  _  the  Forest, 
intending  to  penetrate  through  Bohemia  into  Saxony, 
but  he  was  obliged  to  sacrifice  three  regiments  at  Neu- 
burg.  These  Avith  a  truly  Spartan  courage  defended 
themselves  for  four  days  behind  an  old  wall,  and  gained 
time  for  Banner  to  escape.  He  retreated  by  Egra  to 
Annaberg ;  Piccolomini  took  a  shorter  route  in  pursuit 
by  Schlakenwald,  and  Banner  succeeded  only  by  a  single 
half  hour  in  clearing  the  Pass  of  Prisnitz  and  saving  his 
whole  army  from  the  Imperialists.     At  Zwickau  he  was 


352  THE    THIRTY    YEARS     WAR. 

again  joined  by  Guebriant,  and  both  generals  directed 
their  march  towards  Halberstadt  after  in  vain  attempting 
to  defend  the  Saal  and  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the 
Imperialists. 

Banner  at  length  terminated  his  career  at  Halberstadt, 
in  May,  1641,  a  victim  to  vexation  and  disappointment. 
He  sustained  with  great  renown  though  with  varying 
success  the  reputation  of  the  Swedish  arms  in  Germany, 
and  by  a  train  of  victories  showed  himself  worthy  of  his 
great  master  in  the  art  of  war.  He  was  fertile  in  expe- 
dients, which  he  planned  with  secrecy  and  executed  with 
boldness,  cautious  in  the  midst  of  dangers,  greater  in 
adversity  than  in  prosperity,  and  never  more  formidable 
than  when  upon  the  brink  of  destruction.  But  the  vir- 
tues of  the  hero  were  united  with  all  the  failings  and 
vices  which  a  military  life  creates,  or  at  least  fosters.  As 
imperious  in  private  life  as  he  was  at  the  head  of  his 
army,  rude  as  his  profession,  and  proud  as  a  conqueror, 
he  oppressed  the  German  princes  no  less  by  his  haughti- 
ness than  their  country  by  his  contributions.  He  con- 
soled himself  for  the  toils  of  war  in  voluptuousness  and 
the  pleasures  of  the  table,  in  which  he  indulged  to 
excess,  and  Avas  thus  brought  to  an  early  grave.  But 
though  as  much  addicted  to  pleasure  as  Alexander  or 
Mahomet  II.,  he  hurried  from  the  arms  of  luxury  into 
the  hardest  fatigues,  and  placed  himself  in  all  his  vigor 
at  the  head  of  his  army  at  the  very  moment  his  soldiers 
were  murmuring  at  his  luxurious  excesses.  Kearly 
eighty  thousand  men  fell  in  the  numerous  battles  which 
he  fouglit,  and  about  six  hundred  hostile  standards  and 
colors,  which  he  sent  to  Stockholm,  Avere  the  trophies  of 
his  victories.  The  want  of  this  great  general  was  soon 
severely  felt  by  the  Swedes,  who  feared  with  justice  that 
the  loss  would  not  readily  be  replaced.  The  spirit  of 
rebellion  and  insubordination,  which  had  been  overawed 
by  the  imperious  demeanor  of  this  dreaded  commander, 
awoke  upon  his  death.  The  officers,  with  an  alarming 
unanimity,  demanded  payment  of  their  arrears,  and  none 
of  the  four  generals  who  shared  the  command  possessed 
influence  enough  to  satisfy  these  demands  or  to  silence 
the   malcontents.      All   discipline   was   at   an    end;    in- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WA^  a. J,  353 

creasing  want  and  the  imperial  citations  were  daily- 
diminishing  the  number  of  the  army;  the  troops  of 
France  and  Weimar  showed  little  zeal ;  those  of  Lunen- 
burg forsook  the  Swedish  colors ;  the  Princes  also  of  the 
House  of  Brunswick,  after  the  death  of  Duke  George, 
had  formed  a  separate  treaty  with  the  Emperor,  and  at 
last  even  those  of  Hesse  quitted  them  to  seek  better 
quarters  in  Westphalia.  The  enemy  profited  by  these 
calamitous  divisions,  and  although  defeated  with  loss  in 
two  pitched  battles,  succeeded  in  making  considerable 
progress  in  Lower  Saxony. 

At  length  appeared  the  new  Swedish  generalissimo 
with  fresh  troops  and  money.  This  was  Bernard  Tor- 
stensohn,  a  pupil  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  his  most 
successful  imitator,  who  had  been  his  page  during  the 
Polish  war.  Though  a  martyr  to  the  gout  and  confined  to 
a  litter,  he  surpassed  all  his  opponents  in  activity ;  and  his 
enterprises  had  wings  while  his  body  was  held  by  the 
most  frightful  of  fetters.  Under  him  the  scene  of  war 
was  changed  and  new  maxims  adopted  which  necessity- 
dictated  and  the  issue  justified.  All  the  countries  in 
which  the  contest  had  hitherto  raged  were  exhausted, 
while  the  House  of  Austria,  safe  in  its  more  distant  ter- 
tories,  felt  not  the  miseries  of  the  war  under  which  the 
rest  of  Germany  groaned.  Torstensohn  first  furnished 
them  with  this  bitter  experience,  glutted  his  Swedes  on 
the  fertile  fields  of  Austria,  and  carried  the  torch  of  war 
to  the  very  footsteps  of  the  imperial  throne. 

In  Silesia  the  enemy  had  gained  considerable  advan- 
tage over  the  Swedish  General  Stalhantsch,  and  driven 
him  as  far  as  Neumark.  Torstenohn,  who  had  joined 
the  main  body  of  the  Swedes  in  Lunenburg,  summoned 
him  to  unite  with  his  force,  and  in  the  year  1642  hastily- 
marched  into  Silesia  through  Brandenburg,  which,  under 
its  great  Elector,  had  begun  to  maintain  an  armed  neu- 
trality. Glogau  was  carried,  sword  in  hand,  without  a 
breach  or  formal  approaches,  the  Duke  Francis  Albert 
of  Lauenburg  defeated  and  killed  at  Schweidnitz,  and 
Schweidnitz  itself  with  almost  all  the  towns  on  that  side 
of  the  Oder  taken.  He  now  penetrated  with  irresistible 
violence  into  the  interior  of  Moravia,  where  no  enemy  of 


354  THE    THIETY    YEARS'    WAR. 

Austria  had  hitherto  appeared,  took  Ohiiutz  and  threw 
Vienna  itself  into  consternation. 

But  in  the  meantime  Piccolomini  and  the  Archduke 
Leopold  had  collected  a  superior  force  which  speedily 
drove  the  Swedish  conquerors  from  Moravia,  and,  after  a 
fruitless  attempt  upon  Brieg,  from  Silesia.  Reinforced 
by  Wrangel,  the  Swedes  again  attempted  to  make  head 
against  the  enemy,  and  relieved  Grossglogau,  but  could 
neither  bring  the  Imperialists  to  an  engagement  nor  carry 
into  effect  their  own  views  upon  Bohemia.  Overrunning 
Lusatia  they  took  Zittau  in  presence  of  the  enemy,  and 
after  a  short  stay  in  that  country  directed  their  march 
toward  the  Elbe,  which  they  passed  at  Torgau.  Torsten- 
sohn  now  threatened  Leipzig  with  a  siege,  and  hoped  to 
raise  a  large  supply  of  provisions  and  contributions  from 
that  prosperous  town,  which  for  ten  years  had  been 
un  visited  with  the  scourge  of  war. 

The  Imperialists  under  Leopold  and  Piccolomini  im- 
mediately hastened  by  Dresden  to  its  relief,  and  Torsten- 
sohn  to  avoid  being  inclosed  between  this  army  and  the 
town  boldly  advanced  to  meet  them  in  order  of  battle. 
By  a  strange  coincidence  the  two  armies  met  upon  the 
very  spot  which  eleven  years  before  Gustavus  Adolphus 
had  rendered  remarkable  by  a  decisive  victory;  and  the 
heroism  of  their  predecessors  now  kindled  in  the  Swedes 
a  noble  emulation  on  this  consecrated  ground.  The 
Swedish  Generals  Stahlhantsch  and  Wellenberg  led  their 
divisions  with  such  impetuosity  upon  the  left  wing  of  the 
Imperialists,  before  it  was  completely  formed,  that  the 
whole  cavalry  that  covered  it  were  dispersed  and  ren- 
dered unserviceable.  But  the  left  of  the  Swedes  was 
threatened  with  a  similar  fate  when  the  victorious  right 
advanced  to  its  assistance,  took  the  enemy  in  flank  and 
rear  and  divided  the  Austrian  line.  The  infantry  on 
both  sides  stood  firm  as  a  wall,  and  when  their  ammuni- 
tion was  exhausted  maintained  the  combat  with  the  butt 
ends  of  their  muskets,  till  at  last  the  Imperialists,  com- 
pletely surrounded,  after  a  contest  of  three  hours,  were 
compelled  to  abandon  the  field.  The  generals  on  both 
sides  had  more  than  once  to  rally  their  flying  troops; 
and  the  Archduke  Leopold  with  his  regiment  was  the 


THE  TmRTr  years'  war.  355 

first  in  tbe  attack  and  last  in  fight.  But  this  bloody- 
victory  cost  the  Swedes  more  than  three  thousand  men 
and  two  of  their  best  generals,  Schlangen  and  Lilien- 
hoeck.  More  than  five  thousand  of  the  Imperialists  were 
left  upon  the  field,  and  nearly  as  many  taken  prisoners. 
Their  whole  artillery,  consisting  of  forty-six  field-pieces, 
the  silver  plate  and  portfolio  of  the  archduke,  with  the 
whole  baggage  of  the  army,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victors.  TorstensohUj  too  greatly  disabled  by  his  victory 
to  pursue  the  enemy,  moved  upon  Leipzig.  The  defeated 
army  retreated  into  Bohemia,  where  its  shattered  regi- 
ments reassembled.  The  Archduke  Leopold  could  not 
recover  from  the  vexation  caused  by  this  defeat,  and  the 
regiment  of  cavalry  which  by  its  premature  flight  had 
occasioned  the  disaster  experienced  the  effects  of  his 
indignation.  .  At  Raconitz,  in  Bohemia,  in  presence  of 
the  whole  army,  he  publicly  declared  it  infamous,  de- 
prived it  of  its  horses,  arms,  and  ensigns,  ordered  its 
standards  to  be  torn,  condemned  to  death  several  of  the 
officers,  and  decimated  the  privates. 

The  surrender  of  Leipzig,  three  weeks  after  the  battle, 
was  its  brilliant  result.  The  city  was  obliged  to  clotlie 
the  Swedish  troops  anew,  and  to  purchase  an  exemption 
from  plunder  by  a  contribution  of  tliree  hundred  thou- 
sand rix-dollars,  to  which  all  the  foreign  merchants  who 
had  warehouses  in  the  city  were  to  furnish  their  quota.  In 
the  middle  of  the  winter  Torstensohn  advanced  against 
Freyberg,  and  for  several  weeks  defied  the  inclemency  of 
the  season,  hoping  by  his  perseverance  to  weary  out  the 
obstinacy  of  the  besieged.  But  he  found  that  he  was 
merely  sacrificing  the  lives  of  his  soldiers;  and  at  last 
the  approach  of  the  imperial  general,  Piccolomini,  com- 
pelled him  with  his  weakened  army  to  retire.  He  con- 
sidered it,  however,  as  equivalent  to  a  victor}'^  to  have 
disturbed  the  repose  of  the  enemy  in  their  winter  quarters, 
who,  by  the  severity  of  the  weather,  sustained  a  loss  of  tliree 
thousand  horses.  He  now  made  a  movement  towards  the 
Oder,  as  if  with  the  view  of  reinforcing  himself  with  the 
garrisons  of  Pomerania  and  Silesia ;  but  with  the  rapidity 
of  lightning  he  again  appeared  upon  the  Boliemian  front- 
ier,   penetrated    through    that    kingdom    and    relieved 


356  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

Olmutz  ill  Moravia,  which  was  hard  pressed  by  the  Im- 
perialists. His  camp  at  Dobitschau,  two  miles  from 
Olmutz,  commanded  the  whole  of  Moravia,  on  which  he 
levied  heavy  contributions,  and  carried  his  ravages  almost 
to  the  gates  of  Vienna.  In  vain  did  the  Emperor  at- 
tempt to  arm  the  Hungarian  nobility  in  defence  of  this 
pi'ovince ;  they  appealed  to  their  privileges  and  refused 
to  serve  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  country.  Thus 
the  time  that  should  have  been  spent  in  active  resistance 
was  lost  in  fruitless  negotiation,  and  the  entire  province 
was  abandoned  to  the  ravages  of  the  Swedes. 

While  Torstensohn  by  his  marches  and  his  victories 
astonished  friend  and  foe  the  armies  of  the  allies  had  not 
been  inactive  in  other  parts  of  the  empire.  The  troops 
of  Hesse,  under  Count  Eberstein,  and  those  of  Weimar, 
under  Mareschal  de  Guebriant,  had  fallen  into  the  Elec- 
torate of  Cologne,  in  order  to  take  up  their  winter  quar- 
ters there.  To  get  rid  of  these  troublesome  guests  tlie 
Elector  called  to  his  assistance  the  imperial  General  Hatz- 
feld  and  assembled  his  own  troops  under  General  Lam- 
boy.  The  latter  was  attacked  by  the  allies  in  January, 
1642,  and  in  a  decisive  action  near  Kempen  defeated 
with  a  loss  of  about  two  thousand  men  killed  and  about 
twice  as  many  prisoners.  This  important  victory  opened 
to  them  the  whole  Electorate  and  neighboring  territories 
so  that  the  allies  were  not  only  enabled  to  maintain  their 
winter  quarters  there,  but  drew  from  the  country  large 
supplies  of  men  and  horses. 

Guebriant  left  the  Hessians  to  defend  their  conquests 
on  the  Lower  Rhine  against  Hatzfeld,  and  advanced 
towards  Thuringia,  as  if  to  second  the  operations  of 
Torstensohn  in  Saxony.  But  instead  of  joining  the 
Swedes  he  soon  hurried  back  to  the  Rhine  and  the  Maine, 
from  which  he  seemed  to  think  he  had  removed  farther 
than  was  expedient.  But  being  anticipated  in  the  Mar- 
gravate  of  Baden  by  the  Bavarians  under  Mercy  and 
John  De  Werth  he  was  obliged  to  wander  about  for  sev- 
eral weeks  exposed  without  shelter  to  the  inclemency  of 
the  winter  and  generally  encamping  upon  the  snow  till 
he  found  a  miserable  refuge  in  Bavaria.  He  at  last  took 
the  field,  and  in  the  next  summer  by  keeping  the  Bavarian 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  357 

army  employed  in  Swabia  prevented  it  from  relieving 
Thionville,  wliich  was  besieged  by  Conde.  But  the  supe- 
riority of  the  enemy  soon  drove  him  back  to  Alsace, 
where  he  awaited  a  reinforcement. 

The  death  of  Cardinal  Richelieu  took  place  in  Novem- 
ber, 1642,  and  the  subsequent  change  in  the  throne  and 
in  the  ministry,  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Louis  XIIL, 
had  for  some  time  withdrawn  the  attention  of  France 
from  the  German  war,  and  was  the  cause  of  the  inaction 
of  its  troops  in  the  field.  But  Mazarin,  the  inheritor  not 
only  of  Richelieu's  power,  but  also  of  his  principles  and 
his  projects,  followed  out  with  renewed  zeal  the  plans  of 
his  predecessor,  though  the  French  subject  was  destined 
to  pay  dearly  enough  for  the  political  greatness  of  his 
country.  The  main  strength  of  its  armies,  which  Riche- 
lieu had  employed  against  the  Spaniards,  was  by  Mazarin 
directed  against  the  Emperor ;  and  the  anxiety  with 
which  he  carried  on  the  war  in  Germany  proved  the 
sincerity  of  his  opinion,  that  the  German  army  was  the 
right  arm  of  his  king  and  a  wall  of  safety  around  France. 
Immediately  upon  the  surrender  of  Thionville  he  sent  a 
considerable  reinforcement  to  Field-Marshal  Guebriant  in 
Alsace  ;  and  to  encourage  the  troops  to  bear  the  fatigues 
of  the  German  war,  the  celebrated  victor  of  Rocroi,  the 
Duke  of  Enghien,  afterwads  Prince  of  Conde,  was  placed 
at  their  head.  Guebriant  now  felt  himself  strong  enough 
to  appear  again  in  Germany  with  repute.  He  hastened 
across  the  Rhine  with  the  view  of  procuring  better  win- 
ter quarters  in  Swabia,  and  actually  made  himself  master 
of  Rothweil,  where  a  Bavarian  magazine  fell  into  his 
hands.  But  the  place  was  too  dearly  purchased  for  its 
W'Orth,  and  was  again  lost  even  more  speedily  than  it  had 
been  taken.  Guebriant  received  a  wound  in  the  arm, 
which  the  surgeon's  unskilfulness  rendered  mortal,  and 
the  extent  of  his  loss  was  felt  on  the  very  day  of  his 
death. 

The  French  army,  sensibly  weakened  by  an  expedition 
undertaken  at  so  severe  a  season  of  the  year,  had  after 
the  taking  of  Rowtheil  withdrawn  into  the  neighborhood 
of  Duttlingen,  where  it  lay  in  complete  security  without 
expectation  of   a  hostile  attack.     In  the   meantime  the 


358  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

enemy  collected  a  considerable  force  with  a  view  to 
prevent  the  French  from  establishing  themselves  beyond 
the  Rhine  and  so  near  to  Bavaria,  and  to  protect  that 
quarter  from  their  ravages.  Tlie  Imperialists  under 
Hatzfeld  had  formed  a  junction  with  the  Bavarians 
under  Mercy;  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who,  during 
the  whole  course  of  the  war,  was  generally  found  every- 
where except  in  his  own  duchy,  joined  their  united  forces. 
It  was  resolved  to  force  the  quarters  of  the  French  in 
Duttlingen  and  the  neighboring  villages  by  surprise ;  a 
favorite  mode  of  proceeding  in  this  war,  and  which  being 
commonly  accompanied  by  confusion  occasioned  more 
bloodshed  than  a  regular  battle.  On  the  present  occasion 
there  was  the  more  to  justify  it,  as  the  French  soldiers, 
unaccustomed  to  such  enterprises,  conceived  themselves 
protected  by  the  security  of  the  winter  against  any  sur- 
prise. John  de  Werth,  a  master  in  this  species  of  war- 
fare, which  he  had  often  put  in  practice  against  Gustavus 
Horn,  conducted  the  enterprise  and  succeeded  contrary 
to  all  expectation. 

The  attack  was  made  on  a  side  where  it  was  least 
looked  for,  on  account  of  the  woods  and  narrow  passes ; 
and  a  heavy  snow-storm  which  fell  upon  the  same  day  (the 
24th  November,  1643),  concealed  the  approach  of  the 
vanguard  till  it  halted  before  Duttlingen.  The  whole  of 
the  artillery  without  the  place,  as  well  as  the  neighboring 
Castle  of  Honberg,  were  taken  without  resistance,  Dutt- 
lingen itself  was  gradually  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  and 
all  connection  with  the  other  quarters  in  the  adjacent 
villages  silently  and  suddenly  cut  off.  The  French  were 
vanquished  without  firmg  a  cannon.  The  cavalry  owed 
their  escape  to  the  swiftness  of  their  horses  and  the  few 
minutes  in  advance  which  they  had  gained  upon  their 
pursuers.  The  infantry  were  cut  to  pieces  or  voluntarily 
laid  down  their  arms.  About  two  thousand  men  were 
killed,  and  seven  thousand,  with  twenty-live  staff-officers 
and  ninety  captains,  taken  prisoners.  This  was  perhaps 
the  only  battle  in  the  whole  course  of  the  war  which 
produced  nearly  tlie  same  effect  upon  tlie  party  which 
gained  and  that  which  lost;  —  both  these  parties  were 
Germans ;  the  French  disgraced  themselves.     The  mem- 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  359 

ory  of  this  unfortunate  day,  which  was  renewed  one 
hundred  years  after  at  Rosbach,  was  indeed  erased  by 
the  subsequent  heroism  of  a  Turenne  and  Conde ;  but 
the  Germans  may  be  pardoned  if  they  indemnified  them- 
selves for  the  miseries  which  tlie  policy  of  France  had 
heaped  upon  them  by  these  severe  reflections  upon  her 
intrepidity. 

Meantime  this  defeat  of  the  French  was  calculated  to 
prove  highly  disastrous  to  Sweden,  as  the  whole  power  of 
the  Emperor  might  now  act  against  them,  while  the  num- 
ber of  their  enemies  was  increased  by  a  formidable  acces- 
sion.    Torstensohn  had,  in  September,  1643,  suddenly  left 
Moravia  and  moved  into  Silesia.     The  cause  of  this  step 
was    a   secret,    and    the   frequent   changes   which   took 
place  in  the  direction  of  his  march  contributed  to  increase 
this  perplexity.     From   Silesia  after  numberless  circuits 
he  advanced  towards   the   Elbe,  while  the  Imperialists 
followed   him  into   Lusatia.     Throwing  a  bridge    across 
the  Elbe  at  Torgau,  he    gave  out  that  he  intended  to 
penetrate  through  Meissen  into  the  Upper  Palatinate  in 
Bavaria ;  at  Barby  he  also  made  a  movement  as  if  to  pass 
that  river,  but  continued  to  move  down  the  Elbe  as  far 
as  Havelburg,  where  he  astonished  his  troops  by  inform- 
ing them  that  he  was  leading  them  against  the  Danes  in 
Holstein. 

The  partiality  which  Christian  IV.  had  displayed 
against  the  Swedes  in  his  office  of  mediator,  the  jealousy 
which  led  him  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  hinder  the  pro- 
gress of  their  arms,  the  restraints  which  he  laid  upon  their 
navigation  of  the  Sound,  and  the  burdens  which  he  im- 
posed upon  their  commerce,  had  long  roused  the  indig- 
nation of  Sweden;  and  at  last  when  these  grievances 
increased  daily  had  determined  the  Regency  to  measures 
of  retaliation.  Dangerous  as  it  seemed  to  involve  the 
nation  in  a  new  war,  when  even  amidst  its  conquests  it 
was  almost  exhausted  by  the  old,  the  desire  of  revenge, 
and  the  deep-rooted  hatred  which  subsisted  between 
Danes  and  Swedes,  prevailed  over  all  other  considera- 
tions ;  and  even  the  embarassment  in  which  hostilities 
with  Germany  had  plunged  it  only  served  as  an  additional 
motive  to  try  its  fortune  against  Denmark. 


360  THE    THIRTr   YEARS'   WAR. 

Matters  were  iu  fact  arrived  at  last  to  that  extremity, 
that  the  war  was  prosecuted  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
furnishing  food  and  employment  to  the  troops ;  that  good 
winter  quarters  formed  the  chief  subject  of  contention; 
and  that  success  in  this  point  was  more  valued  than  a 
decisive  victory.  But  now  the  provinces  of  Germany 
were  almost  all  exhausted  and  laid  waste.  They  were 
wholly  destitute  of  provisions,  horses,  and  men,  which  in 
Holstein  were  to  be  found  in  profusion.  If  by  this 
movement  Torstensohn  should  succeed  merely  in  recruit- 
ing his  army,  providing  subsistence  for  his  horses  and 
soldiers,  and  remounting  bis  cavalry,  all  the  danger  and 
difficulty  would  be  well  repaid.  Besides  it  was  highly 
important  on  the  eve  of  negotiations  for  peace  to  dimin- 
ish the  injurious  influence  which  Denmark  might  exercise 
upon  these  deliberations  to  delay  the  treaty  itself,  which 
threatened  to  be  prejudicial  to  the  Swedish  interests,  by 
sowing  confusion  among  the  parties  interested,  and  with 
a  view  to  the  amount  of  indemnification  to  increase  the 
number  of  her  conquests  in  order  to  be  the  more  sure  of 
securing  those  which  alone  she  was  anxious  to  retain. 
Moreover  the  present  state  of  Denmark  justified  even 
greater  hopes,  if  only  the  attempts  were  executed  with 
rapidity  and  silence.  The  secret  was  in  fact  so  well  kept 
in  Stockholm  that  the  Danish  minister  had  not  the  slight- 
est suspicion  of  it ;  and  neither  France  nor  Holland  were 
let  into  the  scheme.  Actual  liostilities  commenced  with 
the  declaration  of  war ;  and  Torstensohn  was  in  Holstein 
before  even  an  attack  was  expected.  The  Swedish  troops 
meeting  with  no  resistance,  quickly  overran  this  duchy 
and  made  themselves  masters  of  all  its  strong  places  ex- 
cept Rensburg  and  Gluckstadt.  Another  army  penetrated 
into  Schonen,  which  made  as  little  opposition  ;  and  noth- 
ino"  but  the  severity  of  the  season  prevented  the  enemy 
from  passing  the  Lesser  Baltic  and  carrying  the  war  into 
Funen  and  Zealand.  The  Danish  fleet  was  unsuccessful 
at  Femeru  ;  and  Christian  himself,  who  was  on  board,  lost 
his  right  eye  by  a  splinter.  Cut  off  from  all  communica- 
tion with  the  distant  force  of  the  Emperor,  his  ally,  this 
king  was  on  the  point  of  seeing  his  whole  kindom  over- 
run by  the  Swedes ;  and  all  things  threatened  the  speedy 


THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR.  361 

fulfilment  of  the  old  prophecy  of  the  famous  Tycho 
Brahe,  that  in  the  year  1644  Christian  IV.  should  wander 
in  the  greatest  misery  from  his  dominions. 

But  the  Emperor  could  not  look  on  with  indifference 
while  Denmark  was  sacrificed  to  Sweden,  and  the  latter 
strengthened  by  so  great  an  acquisition.  Notwithstand- 
ing great  difiiculties  lay  in  the  way  of  so  long  a  march 
through  desolated  provinces,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
despatch  an  army  into  Holstein  under  Count  Gallas,  who, 
after  Piccolomini's  retirement,  had  resumed  the  supreme 
command  of  the  troops.  Gallas  accordingly  appeared  in 
the  duchy,  took  Keil,  and  hoped  by  forming  a  junction 
with  the  Danes  to  be  able  to  shut  up  the  Swedish  army 
in  Jutland.  Meantime  the  Hessians  and  the  Swedish 
General  Koenigsmark  were  kept  in  check  by  Hatzfeld  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  the  son  of  Christian  IV. ; 
and  afterwards  the  Swedes  drawn  into  Saxony  by  an 
attack  upon  Meissen.  But  Torstensohn,  with  his  aug- 
mented army,  penetrated  to  the  unoccupied  pass  betwixt 
Schleswig  and  Stapelholm,  met  Gallas,  and  drove  him 
along  the  whole  course  of  the  Elbe  as  far  as  Bernburg, 
where  the  Imperialists  took  up  an  mtrenched  position. 
Torstensohn  passed  the  Saal,  and  by  posting  himself  in 
the  rear  of  the  enemy,  cut  off  their  communication  with 
Saxony  and  Bohemia.  Scarcity  and  famine  began  now  to 
destroy  them  in  great  numbers,  and  forced  them  to  retreat 
to  Magdeburg,  where,  however,  they  were  not  much  better 
off.  The  cavalry  which  endeavored  to  escape  into  Silesia 
was  overtaken  and  routed  by  Torstensohn,  near  Juter- 
bock ;  the  rest  of  the  army,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  fight 
its  way  through  the  Swedish  lines,  was  almost  wholly 
destroyed  near  Magdeburg,  From  this  expedition  Gallas 
brought  back  only  a  few  thousand  men  of  all  his  formid- 
able force,  and  the  reputation  of  being  a  consummate 
master  in  tlie  art  of  ruining  an  army.  The  King  of 
Denmark  after  this  unsuccessful  effort  to  relieve  him  sued 
for  peace,  which  he  obtained  at  Bremsebor  in  the  year 
1645  under  very  unfavorable  conditions. 

Torstensohn  rapidly  followed  up  his  victory  ;  and  while 
Axel  Lilienstern,  one  of  the  generals  who  commanded 
under  him,  overawed  Saxony,  and  Koenigsmark  subdued 


362  THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

the  whole  of  Bremen,  he  himself  penetrated  into  Bohemia 
with  sixteen  thou  sand  men  and  eighty  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  endeavored  a  second  time  to  remove  the  seat  of  war 
into  the  hereditary  dominions  of  Austria.  Ferdinand,  upon 
this  intelligence,  hastened  in  person  to  Prague,  in  order 
to  animate  the  courage  of  the  people  by  his  presence  ;  and 
as  a  skilful  general  was  much  required,  and  so  little 
unanimity  prevailed  among  the  numerous  leaders,  he 
hoped  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  war  to  be 
able  to  give  more  energy  and  activity.  In  obedience  to 
Ins  orders  Hatzfeld  assembled  the  whole  Austrian  and 
Bavarian  force,  and,  contrary  to  his  own  inclination  and 
advice,  formed  the  Emperor's  last  army  and  the  last  bul- 
wark of  his  states  in  order  of  battle  to  meet  the  enemy, 
who  were  approaching,  at  Jankowitz,  on  the  24th  of  P'eb- 
ruary,  16-45.  Ferdinand  depended  upon  his  cavalry, 
which  outnumbered  that  of  the  enemy  by  three  thousand, 
and  upon  the  promise  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  who  had 
appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and  given  him  the  strongest 
assurances  of  a  complete  victory. 

The  superiority  of  the  Imperialists  did  not  intimidate 
Torstensohn,  who  was  not  accustomed  to  number  his 
antagonists.  On  the  very  first  onset  the  left  wing,  which 
Goetz,  the  general  of  the  League,  had  entangled  in  a 
disadvantageous  position  among  marshes  and  thickets, 
was  totally  routed  ;  the  general,  with  the  greater  part  of 
his  men,  killed,  and  almost  the  whole  ammunition  of  the 
army  taken.  This  unfortunate  commencement  decided 
the  fate  of  the  day.  The  Swedes  constantly  advancing 
successively  carried  all  the  most  commanding  heights. 
After  a  bloody  engagement  of  eight  hours,  a  desperate 
attack  on  the  part  of  the  imperial  cavalry,  and  a  vig- 
orous resistance  by  the  Swedish  infantry,  the  latter  re- 
mained in  possession  of  the  field.  Two  thousand  Aus- 
trians  were  killed  upon  the  spot,  and  Hatzfeld  himself, 
with  three  thousand  men,  taken  prisoners.  Thus  on  the 
same  day  did  the  Emperor  lose  his  best  general  and  his 
last  army. 

This  decisive  victory  at  Jankowitz  at  once  exposed  all 
the  Austrian  territory  to  the  enemy.  Ferdinand  hastily 
fled  to  Vienna,  to  provide  for  its  defence  and  to  save  his 


tI^^^ 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR.  363 

family  and  his  treasures.  In  a  very  short  time  the  vic- 
torious Swedes  poured  like  an  inundation  upon  Moravia 
and  Austria.  After  they  had  subdued  nearly  the  whole 
of  Moravia,  invested  Brunn,  and  taken  all  the  strong- 
holds as  far  as  the  Danube,  and  carried  the  intrenchments 
at  the  Wolfs  bridge,  near  Vienna,  they  at  last  appeared 
in  sight  of  that  capital,  while  the  care  which  they  had 
taken  to  fortify  their  conquests  showed  that  their  visit 
was  not  likely  to  be  a  short  one.  After  a  long  and 
destructive  circuit  through  every  province  of  Germany 
the  stream  of  war  had  at  last  rolled  backwards  to  its 
source,  and  the  roar  of  the  Swedish  artillery  now  reminded 
the  terrified  inhabitants  of  those  balls  which,  twenty- 
seven  years  before,  the  Bohemian  rebels  had  fired  into 
Vienna.  The  same  theatre  of  war  brought  again  similar 
actors  on  the  scene.  Torstensohn  invited  Ragotsky,  the 
successor  of  Bethlen  Gabor,  to  his  assistance,  as  the 
Bohemian  rebels  had  solicited  that  of  his  predecessor ; 
Upper  Hungary  was  already  inundated  by  his  troops, 
and  his  union  with  the  Swedes  was  daily  apprehended. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony,  driven  to  despair  by  the  Swedes 
taking  up  their  quarters  within  his  territories,  and 
abandoned  by  the  Emperor,  who,  after  the  defeat  at 
Jankowitz,  was  unable  to  defend  himself,  at  length 
adopted  the  last  and  only  expedient  which  remained,  and 
concluded  a  truce  with  Sweden,  which  was  renewed  from 
year  to  year  till  the  general  peace.  The  Emperor  thus 
lost  a  friend,  while  a  new  enemy  was  appearing  at  his 
very  gates,  his  armies  dispersed,  and  his  allies  in  other 
quarters  of  Germany  defeated.  The  French  army  had 
effaced  the  disgrace  of  their  defeat  at  Duttlingen  by  a 
brilliant  campaign,  and  had  kept  the  whole  force  of 
Bavaria  employed  upon  the  Rhine  and  in  Swabia.  Rein- 
forced with  fresh  troops  from  France,  which  the  great 
Turenne,  already  distinguished  by  his  victories  in  Italy, 
brought  to  the  assistance  of  the  Duke  of  Enghien,  they 
appeared  on  the  3d  of  August,  1644,  before  Fribourg, 
which  Mercy  had  lately  taken  and  now  covered  Avith  his 
whole  army  strongly  intrenched.  But  against  the  steady 
firmness  of  the  Bavarians  all  the  impetuous  valor  of  the 
French  was  exerted  in  vain,  and  after  a  fruitless  sacrifice  of 


364  THE   THIRTY   YEAES'    WAR. 

six  thousand  men,  the  Duke  of  Enghien  was  compelled 
to  letreat.  Mazarin  shed  teai-s  over  this  great  loss,  which 
Conde,  who  had  no  feeling  for  anything  but  glory,  dis- 
regarded. "  A  single  night  in  Paris,"  said  he,  "  gives 
birth  to  more  men  than  this  action  has  destroyed."  The 
Bavarians,  liowever,  were  so  disabled  by  this  murderous 
battle  that,  far  from  being  in  a  condition  to  relieve  Aus- 
tria from  the  menaced  dangers,  they  were  too  weak  even 
to  defend  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  Spires,  Worms,  and 
Manheim  capitulated  ;  the  strong  fortress  of  Pliilipsburg 
was  forced  to  surrender  by  famine  ;  and  by  a  timely  sub- 
mission Mentz  hastened  to  disarm  the  conquerors. 

Austria  and  Moravia,  however,  were  now  freed  from 
Torstensohn,  by  a  similar  means  of  deliverance  as  in  the 
beginning  of  the  war  had  saved  them  from  the  Bohemians. 
Ragotzky,  at  the  head  of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  had 
advanced  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  Swedish  quarters 
upon  the  Danube.  But  these  wild,  undisciplined  hordes, 
instead  of  seconding  the  operations  of  Torstensohn  by  any 
vigorous  enterprise,  only  ravaged  the  country,  and  in- 
creased the  distress  which,  even  before  their  arrival,  had 
begun  to  be  felt  in  the  Swedish  camp.  To  extort  tribute 
from  the  Emperor,  and  money  and  plunder  from  his 
subjects,  was  the  sole  object  that  had  allured  Ragotzky, 
or  his  predecessor,  Bethlen  Gabor,  into  the  field ;  and 
both  departed  as  soon  as  they  had  gained  their  end.  To 
get  rid  of  him,  Ferdinand  granted  the  barbarian  whatever 
he  asked,  and,  by  a  small  sacrifice,  freed  his  states  of  this 
formidable  enemy. 

In  the  meantime  the  main  body  of  the  Swedes  had 
been  greatly  weakened  by  a  tedious  encampment  before 
Brunn.  Torstensohn,  wlio  commanded  in  person,  for  four 
entire  months  employed  in  vain  all  his  knowledge  of  mili- 
tary tactics  ;  the  obstinacy  of  the  resistance  was  equal  to 
that  of  the  assault ;  while  despair  roused  the  courage  of 
Souches,  the  commandant,  a  Swedish  deserter,  Avho  had 
no  hope  of  pardon.  The  ravages  caused  by  pestilence, 
arising  from  famine,  want  of  cleanliness,  and  the  use  of 
unripe  fruit,  during  their  tedious  and  unhealthy  encamp- 
ment, with  the  sudden  retreat  of  the  Prince  of  Tran- 
sylvania, at  last  compelled  the  Swedish  leader  to  raise 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  365 

the  siege.  As  all  the  passes  upon  the  Danube  were 
occupied,  and  his  army  greatly  weakened  by  famine  and 
sickness,  he  at  last  relinquished  his  intended  plan  of 
operations  against  Austria  and  Moravia,  and  contented 
himself  with  securing  a  key  to  these  provinces  by  leaving 
behind  him  Swedish  garrisons  in  the  conquered  fortresses. 
He  then  directed  his  march  into  Bohemia,  whither  he  was 
followed  by  the  Imperialists  under  the  Archduke  Leopold. 
Such  of  the  lost  places  as  had  not  been  retaken  by  the 
latter  were  recovered  after  his  dejjarture  by  the  Austrian 
General  Bucheim  ;  so  that  in  the  course  of  the  following 
year  the  Austrian  frontier  was  again  cleared  of  the  enemy, 
and  Vienna  escaped  with  mere  alarm.  In  Bohemia  and 
Silesia,  too,  the  Swedes  maintained  themselves  only  with 
a  very  variable  fortune  ;  they  traversed  both  countries 
without  being  able  to  hold  their  ground  in  either.  But 
if  the  designs  of  Torstensohn  were  not  crowned  with  all 
the  success  which  they  were  promised  at  the  commence- 
ment, they  were,  nevertheless,  productive  of  the  most 
important  consequences  to  the  Swedish  paily.  Den- 
mark had  been  compelled  to  a  peace,  Saxony  to  a  truce. 
The  Emperor,  in  the  deliberations  for  a  peace,  offered 
greater  concessions  ;  France  became  more  manageable  ; 
and  Sweden  itself  bolder  and  more  confident  in  its  bearing 
towards  these  two  crowns.  Having  thus  nobly  performed 
his  duty,  the  author  of  these  advantages  retired,  adorned 
with  laurels,  into  the  tranquillity  of  private  life,  and 
endeavored  to  restore  his  shattered  health. 

By  the  retreat  of  Torstensohn  the  Empei-or  was  relieved 
from  all  fears  of  an  irruption  on  the  side  of  Bohemia. 
But  a  new  danger  soon  threatened  the  Austrian  frontier 
from  Swabia  and  Bavaria.  Turenne,  who  had  separated 
from  Conde  and  taken  the  direction  of  Swabia,  had,  in 
the  year  1645,  been  totally  defeated  by  Mercy  near  Mer- 
gentheim ;  and  the  victorious  Bavarians,  under  their  brave 
leader,  poured  into  Hesse.  But  the  Duke  of  Enghien 
hastened  with  considerable  succors  from  Alsace,  Koenigs- 
mark  from  Moravia,  and  the  Hessians  from  the  Rhine,  to 
recruit  the  defeated  army,  and  the  Bavarians  were  in 
turn  compelled  to  retire  to  the  extreme  limits  of  Swabia. 
Here  they  posted  themselves  at  the  village  of  Allersheim, 


366  THE   THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR. 

near  Nordlingen,  in  order  to  cover  the  Bavarian  frontier. 

But  no  obstacle  could  check  the  impetuosity  of  the  Duke 

of  Enghien.     In  person  he  led  on  his  troops  against  the 

enemy's  intrenchments,    and   a  battle  took  place  which 

the   heroic   resistance    of   the  Bavarians  rendered   most 

obstinate  and  bloody ;  till  at  last  the  death  of  the  great 

Mercy,  the  skill  of  Turenne,  and  the  iron  firmness  of  the 

Hessians  decided  the  day  in  favor  of  the  allies.    But  even 

this  second   barbarous  sacrifice  of  life  had  little  effect 

either  on  the  course  of  the  war  or  on  the  negotiations  for 

peace.     The   French   army,   exhausted   by   this   bloody 

engagement,  was  still  further  weakened  by  the  departure 

of  the  Hessians,  and  the  Bavarians  being  reinforced  by 

the  Archduke  Leopold,  Turenne  was  again  obliged  hastily 

to  recross  the  Rhine. 

The  retreat  of  the  French  enabled  the  enemy  to  turn 
his  whole  force  upon  the  Swedes  in  Bohemia.     Gustavus 
Wrangel,  no  unworthy  successor  of  Banner  and  Torsten- 
sohn  had,  in  1646,  been    appointed    commander-in-chief 
of  the  Swedish  array,  which,  besides  Koenigsmark's  flying 
corps  and  the  numerous  garrisons  dispersed  throughout 
the  empire,  amounted  to  about  eight  thousand  horse  and 
fifteen  thousand  foot.     The  archduke,  after  reinforcing 
his  army,  which  already  amounted  to  twenty-four  thou- 
sand men,  with  twelve  Bavarian  regiments  of  cavalry  and 
eighteen  regiments  of  infantry,  moved  against  Wrangel  in 
the  hope  of  being  able  to  overwhelm  him  by  his  superior 
force  before  Koenigsmark  could  join  him,  or  the  French 
effect  a  diversion  in  his  favor.     Wrangel,  however,  did 
not  await  him,  but  hastened  through  Upper  Saxony  to 
the  Weser,  where  he  took  Hoester  and  Paderborn.   From 
thence  he  marched  into  Hesse  in  order  to  join  Turenne, 
and  at  his  camp  at  Wetzlar  was  joined  by  the  flying  corps 
of  Koenigsmark.     But  Turenne,  fettered  by  the  instruc- 
tions of  Mazarin,  Avho  had  seen  with  jealousy  the  warlike 
prowess  and  increasing  power  of  the  Swedes,  excused 
himself  on  the  plea  of  a  pressing  necessity  to  defend  the 
frontier  of  France  on  the  side  of  the  Netherlands  in  con- 
sequence  of   the  Flemings   having   failed   to   make   the 
promised  diversion.     But  as  Wrangel  continued  to  press 
his  just  demand,  and  a  longer  opposition  might  have 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  367 

excited  distrust  on  the  part  of  the  Swedes,  or  induce  them 
to  conclude  a  private  treaty  with  Austria,  Turenne  at  last 
obtained  the  wished-for  j^ermission  to  join  the  Swedish 
army. 

The  junction  took  place  at  Giessen,  and  they  now  felt 
themselves  strong  enough  to  meet  the  enemy.  The  latter 
had  followed  the  Swedes  into  Hesse  in  order  to  inter- 
cept their  commissariat  and  to  prevent  their  union  with 
Turenne.  In  both  designs  they  had  been  unsuccessful ; 
and  the  Imperialists  now  saw  themselves  cut  off  from  the 
Maine  and  exposed  to  great  scarcity  and  want  from 
the  loss  of  their  magazines.  Wrangel  took  advantage  of 
their  weakness  to  execute  a  plan  by  which  he  hoped  to 
give  a  new  turn  to  the  war.  He,  too,  had  adopted  the 
maxim  of  his  predecessor,  to  carry  the  war  into  the 
Austrian  States.  But  discouraged  by  the  ill-success  of 
Torstensohn's  enterprise,  he  hoped  to  gain  his  end  with 
more  certainty  by  another  way.  He  determined  to  fol- 
low the  course  of  the  Danube,  and  to  break  into  the 
Austrian  territories  through  the  midst  of  Bavaria.  A 
similar  design  had  been  formerly  conceived  by  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  which  he  had  been  prevented  carrying  into 
effect  by  the  approach  of  Wallenstein's  army  and  the 
danger  of  Saxony.  Duke  Bernard  moving  in  his  foot- 
steps, and  more  fortunate  than  Gustavus,  had  spread  his 
victorious  banners  between  the  Iser  and  the  Inn ;  but  the 
near  approach  of  the  enemy,  vastly  superior  in  force, 
obliged  him  to  halt  in  his  victorious  career,  and  lead  back 
his  troops.  Wrangel  now  hoped  to  accomplish  the  object 
in  which  his  predecessors  had  failed,  the  more  so  as  the 
Imperial  and  Bavarian  army  was  far  in  his  rear  upon  the 
Lahn,  and  could  only  reach  Bavaria  by  a  long  march 
through  Franconia  and  the  Upper  Palatinate.  He  moved 
hastily  upon  the  Danube,  defeated  a  Bavarian  corps  near 
Donauwerth,  and  passed  that  river,  as  well  as  the  Lech, 
unopposed.  But  by  wasting  his  time  in  the  unsuccessful 
siege  of  Augsburg,  he  gave  opportunity  to  the  Imperialists 
not  only  to  relieve  that  city,  but  also  to  repulse  him  as 
far  as  Lauingen.  No  sooner,  however,  had  they  turned 
towards  Swabia  with  a  view  to  remove  the  war  from 
Bavaria,  than,  seizing  the  opportunity,  he  repassed  the 


368  THE    THIRTY   YEAKS'   WAR. 

Lech,  and  guarded  the  passage  of  it  against  the  Imperial- 
ists themselves.  Bavaria  now  lay  open  and  defenceless 
before  him ;  the  French  and  Swedes  quickly  overran  it ; 
and  the  soldiery  indemnified  themselves  for  all  dangers 
by  frightful  outrages,  robberies,  and  extortions.  The 
arrival  of  the  imperial  troops,  who  at  last  succeeded  in 
passing  the  Lech  at  Thierhaupten,  only  increased  the 
misery  of  this  country,  which  friend  and  foe  indiscrimi- 
nately plundered. 

And  now  for  the  first  time  during  the  whole  course  of 
this  war  the  courage  of  Maximilian,  which  for  eight-and- 
twenty  years  had  stood  unshaken  amidst  fearful  dangers, 
began  to  waver.  Ferdinand  IL,  his  school-companion  at 
Ingoldstadt,  and  the  friend  of  his  youth,  was  no  more, 
and  with  the  death  of  his  friend  and  benefactor  the 
strong  tie  v/as  dissolved  which  had  linked  the  Elector  to 
the  House  of  Austria.  To  the  father,  habit,  inclination, 
and  gratitude  had  attached  him ;  the  son  was  a  stranger 
to  his  heart,  and  political  interests  alone  could  preserve 
his  fidelity  to  the  latter  prince. 

Accordingly  the  motives  which  the  artifices  of  France 
now  put  in  ©iDeration  in  order  to  detach  him  from  the 
Austrian  alliance,  and  to  induce  him  to  lay  down  his 
arms,  were  drawn  entirely  from  political  considerations. 
It  was  not  without  a  selfish  object  that  Mazarin  had  so 
far  overcome  his  jealousy  of  the  growing  power  of  the 
Swedes  as  to  allow  the  French  to  accompany  them  into 
Bavaria.  His  intention  was  to  expose  Bavaria  to  all  the 
horrors  of  war,  in  the  hope  that  the  persevering  fortitude 
of  Maximilian  might  be  subdued  by  necessity  and  de- 
spair, and  the  Emperor  deprived  of  his  first  and  last  ally. 
Brandenburg  had  under  its  great  sovereign  embraced  the 
neutrality ;  Saxony  had  been  forced  to  accede  to  it ;  the 
war  with  France  prevented  the  Spaniards  from  taking 
any  part  in  that  of  Germany;  the  peace  with  Sweden 
had  removed  Denmark  from  the  theatre  of  war;  and 
Poland  had  been  disarmed  by  a  long  truce.  If  they 
could  succeed  in  detaching  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  also 
from  the  Austrian  alliance  the  Emperor  would  be  with- 
out a  friend  in  Germany  and  left  to  the  mercy  of  the 
allied  powers. 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  369 

Ferdinand  III.  saw  his  danger  and  left  no  means  un- 
tried to  avert  it.  But  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  was  unfor- 
tunately led  to  believe  that  the  Spaniards  alone  were 
disinclined  to  peace,  and  that  nothing  but  Spanish  influ- 
ence had  induced  the  Emperor  so  long  to  resist  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities.  Maximilian  detested  the  Spaniards, 
and  could  never  forgive  their  having  opposed  his  applica- 
tion for  the  Palatine  Electorate.  Could  it  then  be  su2> 
posed  that,  in  order  to  gratify  this  hated  power,  he 
would  see  his  people  sacrificed,  his  country  laid  waste, 
and  himself  ruined,  when,  by  a  cessation  of  hostilities, 
he  could  at  once  emancipate  himself  fx-om  all  these  dis- 
tresses, procure  for  his  people  the  repose  of  Avhich  they 
stood  so  much  in  need,  and  perhaps  accelerate  the  arrival 
of  a  general  peace?  All  doubts  disappeared;  and,  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  this  step,  he  thought  he  should 
sufficiently  discharge  his  obligations  to  the  Emperor  if 
he  invited  him  also  to  share  in  the  benefit  of  the  truce. 

The  deputies  of  the  three  crowns,  and  of  Bavaria,  met 
at  Ulm  to  adjust  the  conditions.  But  it  was  soon  evi- 
dent from  the  instructions  of  the  Austrian  ambassadors 
that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  to  second 
the  conclusion  of  a  truce,  but  if  possible  to  prevent  it. 
It  was  obviously  necessary  to  make  the  terms  acceptable 
to  the  Swedes,  who  had  the  advantage,  and  had  more  to 
hojje  than  to  fear  from  the  continuance  of  the  war. 
They  were  the  conquerors;  and  yet  the  Emperor  pre- 
sumed to  dictate  to  them.  In  the  first  transports  of 
their  indignation  the  Swedish  ambassadors  were  on  the 
point  of  leaving  the  congress,  and  the  French  were 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  threats  in  order  to  detain 
them. 

The  good  intentions  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  to  in- 
clude the  Emperor  in  the  benefit  of  the  truce  having 
been  thus  rendered  unavailing,  he  felt  himself  justified 
in  providing  for  his  own  safety.  However  hard  were 
the  conditions  on  which  the  truce  was  to  be  purchased, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  it  on  any  terms.  He  agreed 
to  the  Swedes  extending  their  quarters  in  Swabia  and 
Franconia,  and  to  his  own  being  restricted  to  Bavaria 
and  the  Palatinate.     The  conquests  which  he  had  made 


370  THE   THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR. 

in  Swabia  were  ceded  to  the  allies,  who,  on  their  part, 
restored   to   him   what   they   had   taken   from    Bavaria. 
Cologne   and   Hesse   Cassel  were   also    included    in   the 
truce.     After   the   conclusion   of   this    treaty,    upon   the 
14th  March,  1647,  the  French  and  Swedes  left  Bavaria, 
and  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  each  other,  took  up 
different  quarters,  the  former  in  Wurtemburg,  the  latter 
in  Upper  Swabia,  in  tlie   neighborhood  of  the  Lake  of 
Constance.     On  the  extreme  north  of  this   lake,  and  on 
the  most  southern  frontier  of  Swabia,  the  Austrian  town 
of  Bregentz,  by  its  steep  and  narrow  passes,  seemed  to 
defy  attack ;  and  in  this  persuasion  the  whole  peasantry 
of   the    surrounding  villages    had,   with   their    property, 
taken   refuge   in   this  natural  fortress.     The  rich  booty 
which  the  store  of  provisions  it  contained  gave  reason  to 
expect,  and  the  advantage  of  possessing  a  pass  into  the 
Tyrol,  Switzerland,  and  Italy,  induced  the  Swedish  gen- 
eral to  venture  an  attack  upon  this  supposed  impregnable 
post    and    town,   in    which    he    succeeded.      Meantime, 
Turenne,   according   to   agreement,  marched    into  Wur- 
temburg, where  he  forced  the  Landgrave  of  Darmstadt 
and  the  Elector  of  Mentz  to  imitate  the  example  of  Ba- 
varia, and  to  embi-ace  the  neutrality. 

And  now  at  last  France  seemed  to  have  attained  the 
great  object  of  its  policy,  that  of  depriving  the  Emperor 
of  the  support  of  the  League  and  of  his  Protestant 
allies,  and  of  dictating  to  him,  sword  in  hand,  the  con- 
ditions of  peace.  Of  all  his  once  formidable  power  an 
armv  not  exceeding  twelve  thousand  was  all  that  re- 
mained to  him  ;  and  this  force  he  was  driven  to  the  neces- 
sity of  entrusting  to  the  command  of  a  Calvinist,  the 
Hessian  deserter,''Melander,  as  the  casualties  of  war  had 
stripped  him  of  his  best  generals.  But  as  this  war  had 
been  remarkable  for  the  sudden  changes  of  fortune  it 
displayed,  and  as  every  calculation  of  state  policy  had 
been  frequently  baffled  by  some  unforeseen  event,  in  this 
case  also  the  issue  disappointed  expectation  ;  and  after  a 
brief  crisis  the  fallen  power  of  Austria  rose  again  to  a  for- 
midable strength.  The  jealousy  which  France  entertained 
of  Sweden  prevented  it  from  i)ermitting  the  total  ruin  of 
the   Emi)eror,  or  allowing  the   Swedes  to  obtain  such  a 


THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  371 

preponderance  in  Germany  as  might  have  been  destruc- 
tive to  France  herself.  Accordingly  the  French  minister 
declined  to  take  advantage  of  the  distresses  of  Austria ; 
and  the  army  of  Turenne,  separating  from  that  of 
Wrangel,  retired  to  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands. 
Wrangel,  indeed,  after  moving  from  Swabia  into  Fran- 
conia,  taking  Schweinfurt,  and  incorporating  the  imperial 
garrison  of  that  place  with  his  own  army,  attempted  to 
make  his  way  into  Bohemia,  and  laid  siege  to  Egra,  the 
key  of  that  kingdom.  To  relieve  this  fortress  tlie 
Emperor  put  his  last  army  into  motion,  and  placed  him- 
self at  his  head.  But  obliged  to  take  a  long  circuit,  in 
order  to  spare  the  lands  of  Von  Schlick,  the  president  of 
the  council  of  war,  he  protracted  his  march  ;  and  on  his 
arrival  Egra  Avas  already  taken.  Both  armies  were  now 
in  sight  of  each  other,  and  a  decisive  battle  was  moment- 
arily expected,  as  both  were  suffering  from  want,  and 
the  two  camps  were  only  separated  from  each  other  by 
the  space  of  the  intrenchments.  But  the  Imperialists, 
although  superior  in  numbers,  contented  themselves  with 
keeping  close  to  the  enemy,  and  harassing  them  by 
skirmishes,  by  fatiguing  marches  and  famine,  until  the 
negotiations  which  had  been  opened  with  Bavaria  were 
brouscht  to  a  bearinsr. 

The  neutrality  of  Bavaria  was  a  wound  under  which 
the  imperial  court  writhed  impatiently,  and  after  in  vain 
attempting  to  prevent  it,  Austria  now  determined,  if 
possible,  to  turn  it  to  advantage.  Several  officers  of  the 
Bavarian  army  had  been  offended  by  this  step  of  their 
master,  which  at  once  reduced  them  to  inaction,  and 
imposed  a  burdensome  restraint  on  their  restless  disposi- 
tions. Even  the  brave  John  de  Werth  was  at  the  head  of 
the  malcontents,  and,  encouraged  by  the  Emperor,  he 
formed  a  plot  to  seduce  the  wliole  army  from  their  alle- 
giance to  the  Elector  and  lead  it  over  to  the  Emperor. 
Ferdinand  did  not  blush  to  patronize  this  act  of  treachery 
against  his  father's  most  trusty  ally.  He  formally  issued 
a  proclamation  to  the  Bavarian  troops,  in  which  he 
recalled  them  to  himself,  reminded  them  that  they  were 
the  troops  of  the  Empire,  which  the  Elector  had  merely 
commanded  in  name  of  the  Emperor,     Fortunately  for 


372  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 

Maximilian  he  detected  the  conspiracy  time  enough  to 
anticipate  and  prevent  it  by  the  most  rapid  and  effective 
measures. 

This  disgraceful  conduct  of  the  Emperor  might  have 
justified  a  reprisal,  but  Maximilian  was  too  old  a  states- 
man to  listen  to  the  voice  of  passion  where  policy  alone 
ought  to  be  heard.  He  had  not  derived  from  the  truce 
the  advantages  he  expected.  Far  from  tending  to  accele- 
rate a  general  peace,  it  had  a  pernicious  influence  upon 
the  negotiations  at  Munster  and  Osnaburg,  and  had  made 
the  allies  bolder  in  their  demands.  The  French  and 
Swedes  had  indeed  removed  from  Bavaria ;  but  by  the 
loss  of  his  quarters  in  the  Swabian  circle  he  found  himself 
compelled  either  to  exhaust  his  own  territories  by  the 
subsistence  of  his  troops,  or  at  once  to  disband  them  and 
throw  aside  the  shield  and  spear  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  sword  alone  seemed  to  be  the  arbiter  of  right. 
Before  embracing  either  of  these  certain  evils  he  deter- 
mined to  try  a  third  step,  the  unfavorable  issue  of  which 
was,  at  least,  not  so  uncertain,  viz.,  to  renounce  the  truce 
and  resume  the  war. 

This  resolution,  and  the  assistance  which  he  imme- 
diately dispatched  to  the  Emperor  in  Bohemia,  threat- 
ened materially  to  injure  the  Swedes,  and  Wrangel  was 
compelled  in  haste  to  evacuate  that  kingdom.  He  retired 
through  Thuringia  into  Westphalia  and  Lunenburg,  in 
the  hope  of  forming  a  junction  with  the  French  army 
under  Turenne,  while  the  Imperial  and  Bavarian  army 
followed  him  to  the  Weser,  under  Melander  and  Gronsfeld. 
His  ruin  was  inevitable  if  the  enemy  should  overtake  him 
before  his  junction  with  Turenne;  but  the  same  con- 
sideration which  had  just  saved  the  Emperor  now 
proved  the  salvation  of  the  Swedes.  Even  amidst  all 
the  fury  of  the  conquest  cold  calculations  of  prudence 
guided  the  course  of  tlie  war,  and  the  vigilance  of  the 
different  courts  increased  as  tlie  prospect  of  peace  ap- 
proached. The  Elector  of  Bavaria  could  not  allow  the 
Emperor  to  obtain  so  decisive  a  preponderance  as  by  the 
sudden  alteration  of  affairs  might  delay  the  chances  of  a 
general  peace.  Every  change  of  fortune  was  important 
now,  when  a  jjacification  was  so  ardently  desired  by  all,  and 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  373 

when  the  disturbance  of  the  balance  of  power  among  the 
contracting  parties  might  at  once  annihilate  the  work  of 
years,  destroy  the  fruit  of  long  and  tedious  negotiations, 
and  indefinitely  protract  the  repose  of  Europe.  If  France 
souo-ht  to  restrain  the  Swedish  crown  within  due  bounds, 
and  measured  out  her  assistance  according  to  her  suc- 
cesses and  defeats,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  silently  under- 
took the  same  task  with  the  Emperor,  his  ally,  and  deter- 
mined by  prudently  dealing  out  his  aid  to  hold  the  fate 
of  Austria  in  his  own  hands.  And  now  that  the  power 
of  the  Emperor  threatened  once  more  to  attain  a  dan- 
gerous superiority,  Maximilian  at  once  ceased  to  pur- 
sue the  Swedes.  He  was  also  afraid  of  reprisals  from 
France,  who  had  threatened  to  direct  Turenne's  whole 
force  against  him  if  he  allowed  his  troops  to  cross  the 
Weser. 

Melander,  prevented  by  the  Bavarians  from  further 
pursuing  Wrangel,  crossed  by  Jena  and  Erfurt  into 
Hesse,  and  now  appeared  as  a  dangerous  enemy  in  the 
country  which  he  had  formerly  defended.  If  it  was  the 
desire  of  revenge  upon  his  former  sovereign  which  led 
him  to  choose  Hesse  for  the  scene  of  his  ravage,  he  cer- 
tainly had  his  full  gratification.  Under  this  scourge  the 
miseries  of  that  unfortunate  state  reached  their  height. 
But  he  had  soon  reason  to  regret  that  in  the  choice  of  his 
quarters  he  had  listened  to  the  dictates  of  revenge  rather 
than  of  prudence.  In  this  exhausted  country  his  army 
was  oppressed  by  want,  while  Wrangel  was  recruiting 
his  strength  and  remounting  his  cavalry  in  Lunenburg. 
Too  weak  to  maintain  his  wretched  quarters  against  the 
Swedish  general,  when  he  opened  the  campaign  in  the 
winter  of  1648,  and  marched  against  Hesse,  he  was 
obliged  to  retire  with  disgrace,  and  take  refuge  on  the 
banks  of  the  Danube. 

France  had  once  more  disappointed  the  expectations  of 
Sweden  ;  and  the  army  of  Turenne,  disregarding  the_  re- 
monstrances of  Wrangel,  had  remained  upon  the  Rhine. 
The  Swedish  leader  revenged  himself  by  drawing  into 
his  service  the  cavalry  of  Weimar,  which  had  abandoned 
the  standard  of  France,  though  by  this  step  he  further 
increased  tlie  jealousy  of  that  power.     Turenne  received 


374  THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

permission  to  join  tlie  Swedes ;  and  the  last  campaign  of 
this  eventful  war  was  now  opened  by  the  united  armies. 
Driving  Melander  before  them  along  the  Danube,  they 
threw  supplies  into  Egra,  which  was  besieged  by  the  Im- 
perialists, and  defeated  the  Imperial  and  Bavarian  armies 
on  the  Danube,  which  ventured  to  oppose  them  at  Sus- 
marshausen,  where  Melander  was  mortally  wounded. 
After  this  overthrow,  the  Bavarian  general,  Gronsfeld, 
placed  himself  on  the  farther  side  of  the  Lech,  in  order 
to  guard  Bavaria  from  the  enemy. 

But  Gronsfeld  Avas  not  more  fortunate  than  Tilly,  who 
in  tliis  same  position  had  sacrificed  his  life  for  Bavaria. 
Wrangel  and  Turenne  chose  the  same  spot  for  passing  the 
river  which  was  so  gloriously  marked  by  the  victory  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  accomplished  it  by  the  same 
means,  too,  which  had  favored  their  predecessor.  Bavaria 
was  now  a  second  time  overrun,  and  the  breach  of  the 
truce  punished  by  the  severest  treatment  of  its  inhabitants. 
Maximilian  sought  shelter  in  Salzburg,  while  the  Swedes 
crossed  the  Iser,  and  forced  their  way  as  far  as  the  Inn. 
A  violent  and  continued  rain,  which  in  a  few  days  swelled 
this  inconsidei'able  stream  into  a  broad  river,  saved 
Austria  once  more  from  the  threatened  danger.  The 
enemy  ten  times  attempted  to  form  a  bridge  of  boats 
over  the  Inn,  and  as  often  it  was  destroyed  by  the  current. 
Never,  during  the  whole  course  of  the  war,  had  the  Im- 
perialists been  in  so  great  consternation  as  at  present, 
when  the  enemy  were  in  the  centre  of  Bavaria,  and  when 
they  had  no  longer  a  general  left  who  could  be  matched 
against  a  Turenne,  a  Wrangel,  and  a  Koenigsmark.  At 
last  the  brave  Piccolomini  arrived  from  the  Netherlands 
to  assume  the  command  of  the  feeble  wreck  of  the  Im- 
perialists. By  their  own  ravages  in  Bohemia  the  allies 
had  rendered  their  subsistence  in  that  country  impracti- 
cable, and  were  at  last  driven  by  scarcity  to  retreat  into 
the  Upper  Palatinate,  where  the  news  of  the  peace  put  a 
period  to  their  activity. 

Koenigsmark,  with  his  flying  corps,  advanced  towards 
Bohemia,  where  Ernest  Odowalsky,  a  disbanded  captain, 
who,  after  being  disabled  in  the  imperial  service,  had  been 
dismissed  without  a  pension,  laid  before  him  a  plan  for 


THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  375 

surprising  the  lesser  side  of  the  city  of  Prague.  Koeuio-g- 
mark  successfully  accomplished  the  bold  enterprise,  and 
acquired  the  reputation  of  closing  the  thirty  years'  war 
by  the  last  brilliant  achievement.  This  decisive  stroke, 
which  vanquished  the  Emperor's  irresolution,  cost  the 
Swedes  only  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  But  the  old  town, 
the  larger  half  of  Prague,  which  is  divided  into  two  parts 
by  the  Moldau,  by  its  vigorous  resistance  wearied  out  the 
efforts  of  the  Palatine,  Charles  Gustavus,  the  successor 
of  Christina  on  the  throne,  who  had  arrived  from  Sweden 
with  fresh  troops,  and  liad  assembled  the  whole  Swedish 
force  in  Bohemia  and  Silesia  before  its  walls.  The 
approach  of  winter  at  last  drove  the  besiegers  into  their 
quarters,  and  in  the  meantime,  the  intelfigence  arrived 
that  a  peace  had  been  signed  at  Miinster,  on  the  24th 
October. 

The  colossal  labor  of  concluding  this  solemn,  and  ever- 
memorable  and  sacred  treaty,  which  is  known  by  the 
name  of  the  peace  of  Westphalia ;  the  endless  obstacles 
which  were  to  be  surmounted ;  the  contending  interests 
which  it  was  necessary  to  reconcile  :  the  concatenation  of 
circumstances  which  must  have  co-operated  to  bring  to  a 
favorable  termination  this  tedious,  but  precious  and  per- 
manent work  of  policy ;  the  difficulties  which  beset  the 
very  opening  of  the  negotiations,  and  maintaining  them, 
when  opened,  during  the  ever-fluctuating  vicissitudes  of 
the  war;  finally,  arranging  the  conditions  of  peace,  and, 
still  more,  the  carrying  them  into  effect ;  —  what  were  the 
conditions  of  this  peace ;  what  each  contending  power 
gained  or  lost,  by  the  toils  and  sufferings  of  a  thirty  years' 
war;  what  modification  it  wrought  upon  the  general 
system  of  European  policy;  —  these  are  matters  which 
must  be  relinquished  to  another  pen.  The  history  of  the 
peace  of  Westphalia  constitutes  a  whole,  as  important  as 
the  history  of  the  war  itself.  A  mere  abridgment  of  it 
would  reduce  to  a  mere  skeleton  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  characteristic  monuments  of  human  policy  and 
passions,  and  deprive  it  of  every  feature  calculated  to  fix 
the  attention  of  the  public,  for  which  I  write,  and  of 
which  I  now  respectfully  take  my  leave. 


WORKS   OF  FREDERICK  SCHILLER. 


THE  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 


CONTENTS. 


I>A6H 

Author's  Preface ^ 

iNTRODfCTION          .            .           .           i           ^                       .....  8 

Book  I. —Earlier  History  or  xHy.  K^vIxE^lands  up  to  the 

Sixteenth  Century 22 

Book  II.  —  Cardinal  Geakvbtla    ,       *       .        .       •  ;'l 

Book  III.  — Conspiracy  op  the  Noblhs i42 

Book  IV".  — The  Iconoclasts 187 

Trial  and  Execution  of  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn    .  279 
Siege  of  Antwerp  by  the  Prince  op  Parma,  in  the 

TEARS  1584  AND  1585 287 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


REVOLT   OF   THE    UNITED   NETHERLANDS. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

MA.NY  years  ago,  when  I  read  the  History  of  the  Belgian 
Revolution  in  Watson's  excellent  work,  I  was  seized  with 
an  enthusiasm  which  political  events  but  rarely  excite. 
On  further  reflection  I  felt  that  this  enthusiastic  feeling 
had  arisen  less  from  the  book  itself  than  from  the  ardent 
workings  of  my  own  imagination,  which  had  imparted  to 
the  recorded  materials  the  particular  form  that  so  fasci- 
nated me.     These  imaginations,  therefore,  I  felt  a  wish 
to  fix,  to   multiply,   and    to    streugtlien ;    these  exalted 
sentiments  I  was  anxious  to  extend  by  communicating 
them  to  others.     This  was  my  principal  motive  for  com- 
mencing the  present  history,  my  only  vocation  to  write 
it.     The  execution  of  this  design  carried  me  farther  than 
in  the  beginning  I  had  expecterl.     A  closer  acquaintance 
with  ray  materials  enabled  me  to  discover  defects  pre- 
viously  unnoticed,    long    waste    tracts   to   be   filled   up, 
apparent  contradictions    to  be  reconciled,  and   isolated 
facts  to  be  brought  into  connection  with  the  rest  of  the 
subject.     Not  so  much  with  the  view  of  enriching  my 
history  with  new  facts  as  of  seeking  a  key  to  old  ones,  I 
betook  myself  to  tlie  original  sources,  and  thus  what  was 
originally  intended  to  be  only  a  general  outline  expanded 
iinder  my  hands  into  an  elaborate  history.    The  first  part, 
which  concludes  with  the  Duchess  of  Parma's  departure 
from  the  Netherlands,  must  be  looked  upon  only  as  the 
introduction  to  the  history  of  the  Revolution  itself,  wliich 
d'A  not  come  to  an  open  outbi-eak  till  the  government  of 
her  successor.     I  have  bestowed  the  more  care  and  atten- 

5 


6  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

tion  upon  this  introductory  period  the  more  the  generality 
of  writers  who  had  previously  treated  of  it  seemed  to  me 
deficient  in  these  very  qualities.  Moreover,  it  is  in  my 
opinion  the  more  important  as  being  the  root  and  source 
of  all  the  subsequent  events.  If,  then,  the  first  volume 
should  appear  to  any  as  barren  in  important  incident, 
dwelling  prolixly  on  trifles,  or,  rather,  should  seem  at 
first  sight  profuse  of  reflections,  and  in  general  tediously 
minute,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  precisely  out 
of  small  beginnings  that  the  Revolution  was  gradually 
developed ;  and  that  all  the  great  results  which  follow 
sprang  out  of  a  countless  number  of  trifling  and  little 
circumstances. 

A  nation  like  the  one  before  us  invariably  takes  its  first 
steps  with  doubts  and  uncertainty,  to  move  afterwards 
only  the  more  rapidly  for  its  previous  hesitation,  I  pro- 
posed, therefore,  to  follow  the  same  method  in  describing 
this  rebellion.  The  longer  the  reader  delays  on  the  intro- 
duction the  more  familiar  he  becomes  with  the  actors  in 
this  history,  and  the  scene  in  which  they  took  a  part,  so 
much  the  more  rapidly  and  unerringly  shall  I  be  able 
to  lead  him  through  the  subsequent  periods,  where  the 
accumulation  of  materials  will  forbid  a  slowness  of  step 
or  minuteness  of  attention. 

As  for  the  authorities  of,  our  history  there  is  not  so 
much  cause  to  complain  of  their  paucity  as  of  their  ex- 
treme abundance,  since  it  is  indispensable  to  read  them 
all  to  obtain  that  clear  view  of  the  whole  subject  to  which 
the  perusal  of  a  part,  however  large,  is  always  prejudicial. 
From  the  unequal,  partial,  and  often  contradictory  narra- 
tives of  the  same  occurrences  it  is  often  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  seize  the  truth,  wdiich  in  all  is  alike  partly  con- 
cealed and  to  be  found  complete  in  none.  In  this  first 
volume,  besides  de  Thou,  Strada,  Reyd,  Grotius,  Meteren, 
Burgundius,  Meursius,  Bentivoglio,  and  some  moderns, 
the  Memoirs  of  Counsellor  Hopper,  the  life  and  corre- 
spondence of  his  friend  Viglius,  the  records  of  the  trials 
of  the  Counts  of  Hoorne  and  Egmont,  the  defence  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  and  some  few  others  have  been  my 
guides.  I  must  here  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  a 
work  compiled  with  much  industry  and  critical  acumen, 


REVOLT   OF    THE   NETHERLANDS.  7 

and  written  with  singular  truthfulness  and  impartiality. 
I  allude  to  the  general  history  of  the  United  Netherlands 
which  was  published  in  Holland  during  the  present  cen- 
tury. Besides  many  original  documents  which  I  could 
not  otherwise  have  had  access  to,  it  has  abstracted  all 
that  is  valuable  in  the  excellent  works  of  Bos,  Hooft, 
Brandt,  Le  Clerc,  which  either  were  impossible  for  me  to 
procure  or  were  not  available  to  my  use,  as  being  written 
in  Dutch,  which  I  do  not  understand.  An  otherwise 
ordinary  writer,  Richard  Dinoth,  has  also  been  of  service 
to  me  by  the  many  extracts  he  gives  from  the  pamphlets 
of  the  day,  which  have  been  long  lost.  I  have  in  vain 
endeavored  to  procure  the  correspondence  of  Cardinal 
Granvella,  which  also  would  no  doubt  have  thrown  much 
light  upon  the  history  of  these  times.  The  lately  pub- 
lished work  on  the  Spanish  Inquisition  by  my  excellent 
countryman.  Professor  Spittler  of  Gottingen,  reached  me 
too  late  for  its  sagacious  and  important  contents  to  be 
available  for  my  purpose. 

The  more  I  am  convinced  of  the  importance  of  the 
French  history,  the  more  I  lament  that  it  was  not  in  ray 
power  to  study,  as  I  could  have  wished,  its  copious  annals 
m  the  original  sources  and  contemporary  documents,  and 
to  reproduce  it  abstracted  of  the  form  in  which  it  was 
transmitted  to  me  by  the  more  intelligent  of  my  prede- 
cessors, and  thereby  emancipate  myself  from  the  influence 
which  every  talented  author  exercises  more  or  less  upon 
his  readers.  But  to  effect  this  the  work  of  a  few  years 
must  have  become  the  labor  of  a  life.  My  aim  in  making 
this  attempt  will  be  more  than  attained  if  it  sliould  con- 
vince a  portion  of  the  reading  public  of  the  possibility  of 
writing  a  history  with  historic  truth  Mdthout  making 
a  trial  of  patience  to  the  reader;  and  if  it  should  ex'tort 
from  another  portion  the  confession  that  history  can 
borrow  from  a  cognate  art  without  thereby,  of  necessity, 
becoming  a  romance. 

Weimar,  Michaelmas  Fair,  1788. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Of  those  important  political  events  which  make  the  six- 
teenth centurj'  to  take  rank  among  the  brightest  of  the 
world's  epochs  the  foundation  of  the  freedom  of  the 
Netherlands  appears  to  me  one  of  the  most  remarkable. 
If  the  glittering  exploits  of  ambition  and  the  pernicious 
lust  of  power  claim  our  admiration,  how  much  more  so 
should  an  event  in  which  oppressed  humanity  struggled 
for  its  noblest  rights,  where  with  the  good  cause  un- 
wonted powers  were  united,  and  the  resources  of  resolute 
despair  triumphed  in  unequal  contest  over  the  terrible 
arts  of  tyranny. 

Great  and  encouraging  is  the  reflection  that  there  is  a 
resource  left  us  against  the  arrogant  usurpations  of  des- 
potic power;  that  its  best-contrived  plans  against  the 
liberty  of  mankind  may  be  frustrated ;  that  resolute 
opposition  can  weaken  even  the  outstretched  arm  of  tyr- 
anny ;  and  that  heroic  jjerseverance  can  eventually  exhaust 
its  fearful  resources.  Never  did  this  truth  affect  me  so 
sensibly  as  in  tracing  the  history  of  that  memorable 
rebellion  which  forever  severed  the  United  Netherlands 
from  the  Spanish  Crown.  Therefore  I  thought  it  not 
unworth  the  while  to  attempt  to  exhibit  to  the  world  this 
grand  memorial  of  social  union,  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
awaken  in  the  breast  of  my  reader  a  spirit-stirring  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  powers,  and  give  a  new  and  irre- 
fragable example  of  what  in  a  good  cause  men  may  both 
dare  and  venture,  and  what  by  union  they  may  accom- 
plish. It  is  not  the  extraordinary  or  heroic  features  of 
this  event  that  induce  me  to  describe  it.  The  annals  of 
the  world  record  perhaps  many  similar  enterprises,  which 
may  have  been  even  bolder  in  the  conception  and  more 
bi'illiant  in  the  execution.  Some  states  have  fallen 
after  a  nobler  struggle ;  others  have  risen  with  more 
exalted  strides.  Nor  are  we  here  to  look  for  eminent 
heroes,  colossal  talents,  or  those  marvellous  exploits  which 
the  history  of  past  times  presents  in  such  rich  abundance. 
Those  times  are  gone ;  such  men  are  no  more.  In  the 
soft  lap  of  refinement  we  have  suffered  the  energetic 
8 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  9 

powers  to  become  enervate  which  those  ages  called  into 
action  and  rendered  indispensable.  With  admiring  awe 
we  wonder  at  these  gigantic  images  of  the  past  as  a 
feeble  old  man  gazes  on  the  athletic  sports  of  youth. 

Not  so,  liowever,  in  the  history  before  us.  The  people 
here  presented  to  our  notice  were  the  most  peaceful  in 
our  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  less  capable  than  their 
neighbors  of  that  heroic  spirit  which  stamps  a  lofty 
character  even  on  the  most  insignificant  actions.  The 
pressure  of  circumstances  with  its  peculiar  influence  sur- 
jH-ised  them  and  forced  a  transitory  greatness  upon  them, 
which  they  never  could  have  possessed  and  perhaps  will 
never  possess  again.  It  is,  indeed,  exactly  this  want  of 
heroic  grandeur  Avhich  renders  this  event  peculiarly  in- 
structive ;  and  while  others  aim  at  showing  the  superiority 
of  genius  over  chance,  I  shall  here  paint  a  scene  where 
necessity  creates  genius  and  accident  makes  heroes. 

If  in  any  case  it  be  allowable  to  recognize  the  interven- 
tion of  Providence  in  human  affairs  it  is  certainly  so  in 
the  present  history,  its  course  apjjears  so  contradictory  to 
reason  and  experience.  Philip  II.,  the  most  powerful 
sovereign  of  his  line — whose  dreaded  supremacy  menaced 
the  independence  of  Europe— ^ whose  treasures  surpassed 
the  collective  wealth  of  all  the  monarchs  of  Christendom 
besides  —  whose  ambitious  projects  were  backed  by 
numerous  and  well-disciplined  armies  —  whose  troops, 
hardened  by  long  and  bloody  wars,  and  confident  in  past 
victories  and  in  the  irresistible  prowess  of  this  nation, 
were  eager  for  any  enterprise  that  promised  glory  and 
spoil,  and  ready  to  second  with  prompt  obedience  the 
daring  genius  of  their  leaders  —  this  dreaded  potentate 
here  appears  before  us  obstinately  pursuing  one  favorite 
project,  devoting  to  it  the  untiring  efforts  of  a  long  reign, 
and  bringing  all  these  terrible  resources  to  bear  upon  it ; 
but  forced,  in  the  evening  of  his  reign,  to  abandon  it  — 
here  we  see  the  mighty  Philip  II.  engaging  in  combat 
with  a  few  weak  and  powerless  adversaries,  and  retiring 
from  it  at  last  with  disgrace. 

And  with  what  adversaries  ?  Here,  a  peaceful  tribe  of 
fishermen  and  shepherds,  in  an  almost-forgotten  corner 
of  Europe,  which  with  difficulty  they  had  rescued  from 


10  REVOLT   OF    THE   NETHERLANDS. 

the  ocean ;  tlie  sea  their  profession,  and  at  once   their 
wealth  and   their  plague ;    poverty  with  freedom   their 
highest  blessing,  their  glory,  their  virtue.    There,  a  harm- 
less, moral,  commercial  people,  revelling  in  the  abundant 
fruits  of  thriving  industry,  and  jealous  of  the  maintenance 
of  laws  which  had  proved  their  benefactors.     In  the  ha^jpy 
leisure  of  affluence  they  forsake  the  narrow  circle  of  im- 
mediate wants  and  learn  to  thirst  after  higher  and  nobler 
gratifications.     The  new  views  of  truth,  whose  benignant 
dawn  now  broke  over  Europe,  cast  a  fertilizing  beam  on 
this  favored  clime,  and  the  free   burgher  admitted  with 
joy  the  light  which  oppressed   and  miserable  slaves  shut 
out.     A  spirit  of  independence,    which   is  the  ordinary 
companion  of  jiirosperity  and   freedom,  lured  this  people 
on  to  examine  the  authority  of  antiquated  opinions  and 
to  break  an  ignominious    chain.     But   the  stern  rod  of 
despotism   was    held     suspended    over   them ;    arbitrary 
power  threatened  to  tear  away  the  foundation  of  their 
happiness  ;  the  guardian  of  their  laws  became  their  tyrant. 
Simple  in  their  statecraft  no  less  than  in  their  manners, 
they  dared  to  appeal  to  ancient  treaties  and  to  remind  the 
lord  of  both  Indies   of  the   rights  of  nature.     A  name 
decides  the  whole  issue  of  things.     In  Madrid  that  was 
called  rebellion   which  in  Brussels  was  simply  styled  a 
lawful  remonstrance.     The  complaints  of  Brabant  required 
a  prudent  mediator  ;   Philip  II.  sent  an  executioner.   The 
signal  for  war  was  given.     An  unparalleled  tyranny  as- 
sailed both  property  and  life.     The  despairing  citizens,  to 
whom  the  choice  of  deaths  was  all  that  was  left,  chose 
the  nobler  one  on  the  battle-field.     A  wealthy  and  luxu- 
rious nation  loves  peace,  but  becomes  warlike  as  soon  as 
it  becomes  poor.     Then    it  ceases    to  tremble  for  a  life 
which  is  deprived  of  everything  that  had  made  it  desir- 
able.    In  an  instant  the  contagion  of  rebeyion  seizes  at 
once  the  most  distant  provinces ;    trade   and   commerce 
are  at  a  standstill,  the  ships  disappear  from    the  harbors, 
the  artisan  abandons  his  workshop,  the  rustic  his  unculti- 
vated fields.     Thousands  fled  to  distant  lands,  a  thousand 
victims   fell  on   the   bloody  field,   and    fresh    thousands 
pressed  on.     Divine,  indeed,  must  that  doctrine  be  for 
which  men  could  die  so  joyfully.     All  that  was  wanting 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  11 

was  tlie  last  finishing  liand,  the  enlightened,  enterprising 
spirit,  to  seize  on  this  great  political  crisis  and  to  mould 
the  offspring  of  chance  into  the  ripe  creation  of  wisdom. 
William  the  Silent,  like  a  second  Brutus,  devoted  himself 
to  the  great  cause  of  liberty.  Superior  to  all  selfishness, 
he  resigned  honorable  offices  which  entailed  on  him  ob- 
jectionable duties,  and,  magnanimously  divesting  himself 
of  all  his  princely  dignities,  he  descended  to  a  state  of 
voluntary  poverty,  and  became  but  a  citizen  of  the  world. 
The  cause  of  justice  was  staked  upon  the  hazardous  game 
of  battle;  but  the  newly-raised  levies  of  mercenaries  and 
peaceful  husbandmen  were  unable  to  withstand  the  ter- 
rible onset  of  an  experienced  force.  Twice  did  the  brave 
William  lead  his  dispirited  troops  against  the  tyrant. 
Twice  was  he  abandoned  by  them,  but  not  by  his  courage. 

Philip  II.  sent  as  many  reinforcements  as  the  dreadful 
importunity  of  his  viceroy  demanded.  Fugitives,  whom 
their  country  rejected,  sought  a  new  home  on  the  ocean,  and 
turned  to  the  ships  of  their  enemy  ta  satisfy  the  cravings 
both  of  vengeance  and  of  want.  Naval  heroes  were  now 
formed  out  of  corsairs,  and  a  marine  collected  out  of 
piratical  vessels ;  out  of  morasses  arose  a  republic.  Seven 
provinces  threw  off  the  yoke  at  the  same  time,  to  form 
a  new,  youthful  state,  powerful  by  its  waters  and  its 
union  and  despair.  A  solemn  decree  of  the  Avhole  nation 
deposed  the  tyrant,  and  the  Spanish  name  was  erased 
from  all  its  laws. 

For  such  acts  no  forgiveness  remained;  the  republic 
became  formidable  only  because  it  was  impossible  for  her 
to  retrace  her  steps.  But  factions  distracted  her  within  ; 
without,  her  terrible  element,  the  sea  itself,  leaguing  with 
her  oppressors,  threatened  her  very  infancy  with  a  pre- 
mature grave.  She  felt  herself  succumb  to  the  superior 
force  of  the  enemy,  and  cast  herself  a  suppliant  before 
the  most  powerful  thrones  of  Europe,  begging  them  to 
accept  a  dominion  which  she  herself  could  no  longer 
protect.  At  last,  but  with  difficulty  —  so  despised  at  first 
was  this  state  that  even  the  rapacity  of  foreign  monarchs 
spurned  her  opening  bloom —  a  stranger  deigned  to  accept 
their  importunate  offer  of  a  dangerous  crown.  New 
hopes  began  to  revive  her  sinking  courage ;  but  in  this 


12  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

new  father  of  liis  country  destiny  gave  her  a  traitor,  and 
in  the  critical  emergency,  when  the  foe  was  in  full  force 
before  her  very  gates,  Charles  of  Anjou  invaded  the 
liberties  which  he  had  been  called  to  protect.  In  the 
midst  of  the  tempest,  too,  the  assassin's  hand  tore  the 
steersman  from  the  helm,  and  with  William  of  Orange 
tlie  career  of  the  infant  republic  was  seemingly  at  an  end, 
and  all  her  guardian  angels  fled.  But  the  ship  continued 
to  scud  along  before  the  storm,  and  the  swelling  canvas 
carried  her  safe  without  the  pilot's  help. 

Philip  II.  missed  the  fruits  of  a  deed  which  cost  him  his 
royal  honor,  and  perhaps,  also,  his  self-respect.  Liberty 
struggled  on  still  with  despotism  in  obstinate  and  dubious 
contest ;  sanguinary  battles  were  fought ;  a  brilliant 
array  of  heroes  succeeded  each  other  on  the  field  of  glory, 
and  Flanders  and  Brabant  were  the  schools  which  educated 
generals  for  the  coming  century.  A  long,  devastating 
war  laid  waste  the  open  country ;  victor  and  vanquished 
alike  waded  through  blood ;  while  the  rising  republic  of 
the  Avaters  gave  a  welcome  to  fugitive  industry,  and  out 
of  the  ruins  of  despotism  erected  the  noble  edifice  of  its 
own  greatness.  For  forty  years  lasted  the  war  whose 
happy  termination  was  not  to  bless  the  dying  eye  of 
Philip  ;  Avhich  destroyed  one  paradise  in  Europe  to  form 
a  new  one  out  of  its  shattered  fragments  ;  which  destroyed 
the  choicest  flower  of  military  youth,  and  while  it  en- 
riched more  than  a  quarter  of  the  globe  impoverished  tlie 
possessor  of  the  golden  Peru.  This  monarch,  who  could 
expend  nine  hundred  tons  of  gold  without  oppressing  his 
subjects,  and  by  tyrannical  measures  extorted  far  more, 
heaped,  moreover,  on  liis  exhausted  people  a  debt  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  millions  of  ducats.  An  implacable 
hatred  of  liberty  swallowed  up  all  these  treasures,  and 
consumed  on  the  fruitless  task  the  labor  of  a  royal  life. 
But  the  Reformation  throve  amidst  the  devastations  of 
the  sword,  and  over  the  blood  of  her  citizens  the  banner 
of  the  new  republic  floated  victorious. 

This  improbable  turn  of  affairs  seems  to  border  on  a 
miracle  ;  many  circumstances,  however,  combined  to  break 
the  power  of  Philip,  and  to  favor  the  progress  of  the 
infant  state.     Had  the  whole  weight  of  bis  power  fallen 


REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  13 

on  the  United  Provinces  there  had  been  no  hope  for  their 
religion  or  their  liberty.  His  own  ambition,  by  tempting 
him  to  divide  his  strength,  came  to  the  aid  of  their  weak- 
ness. The  expensive  policy  of  maintaining  traitors  in 
every  cabinet  of  Europe ;  the  support  of  the  League  in 
France ;  the  revolt  of  the  Moors  in  Granada ;  the  con- 
quest of  Portugal,  and  the  magnificent  fabric  of  the 
Escurial,  drained  at  last  his  apparently  inexhaustible 
treasury,  and  prevented  his  acting  in  the  field  with  spirit 
and  energy.  The  German  and  Italian  troops,  whom  the 
hope  of  gain  alone  allured  to  his  banner,  mutinied  when  he 
could  no  longer  pay  them,  and  faithlessly  abandoned  their 
leaders  in  the  decisive  moment  of  action.  These  terrible  in- 
struments of  oppression  now  turned  their  dangerous  power 
against  their  employer,  and  wreaked  their  vindictive  rage 
on  the  provinces  which  remained  faithful  to  him.  The 
imfortunate  armament  against  England,  on  which,  like  a 
desperate  gamester,  he  had  staked  the  whole  strength  of 
his  kingdom,  completed  his  ruin ;  with  the  armada  sank 
the  wealth  of  the  two  Indies,  and  the  flower  of  Spanish 
chivalry. 

But  in  the  very  same  proportion  that  the  Spanish 
power  declined  the  republic  rose  in  fresh  vigor.  The 
ravages  which  the  fanaticism  of  the  new  religion,  the 
tyranny  of  the  Inquisition,  the  furious  rapacity  of  the 
soldiery,  and  the  miseries  of  a  long  war  unbroken  by  any 
interval  of  peace,  made  in  the  provinces  of  Brabant, 
Flanders,  and  Hainault,  at  once  the  arsenals  and  the 
magazines  of  this  expensive  contest,  naturally  rendered 
it  every  year  more  difficult  to  support  and  recruit  the 
royal  armies.  The  Catholic  Netherlands  had  already 
lost  a  million  of  citizens,  and  the  trodden  fields  main- 
tained their  husbandmen  no  longer.  Spain  itself  had  but 
few  more  men  to  spare.  That  country,  surprised  by  a 
sudden  affluence  which  brought  idleness  with  it,  had  lost 
much  of  its  population,  and  could  not  long  support  the 
continual  drafts  of  men  which  were  required  both  for  the 
New  World  and  the  Netherlands.  Of  these  conscripts 
few  ever  saw  their  country  again ;  and  these  few  having 
left  it  as  youths  returned  to  it  infirm  and  old.  Gold, 
which  had  become  more  common,  made  soldiers  jt)ropor- 


14  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

tionately  dearer;  the  growing  charm  of  effeminacy  en- 
hanced the  price  of  the  opposite  virtues.  Wholly  differ- 
ent was  the  posture  of  affairs  with  the  rebels.  The 
thousands  whom  the  cruelty  of  the  viceroy  expelled  from 
the  southern  Netherlands,  the  Huguenots  whom  the  wars 
of  persecution  drove  from  France,  as  well  as  every  one 
whom  constraint  of  conscience  exiled  from  the  other 
parts  of  Europe,  all  alike  flocked  to  unite  themselves  with 
the  Belgian  insurgents.  The  whole  Christian  world  was 
their  recruiting  ground.  The  fanaticism  both  of  the 
persecutor  and  the  persecuted  worked  in  their  behalf. 
The  enthusiasm  of  a  doctrine  newly  embraced,  revenge, 
want,  and  hopeless  misery  drew  to  their  standard  adven- 
turers from  every  part  of  Europe.  All  whom  the  new 
doctrine  had  won,  all  who  had  suffered,  or  had  still  cause 
of  fear  from  despotism,  linked  their  own  fortunes  with 
those  of  the  new  republic.  Every  injury  inflicted  by  a 
tyrant  gave  a  right  of  citizenship  in  Holland.  Men 
pressed  towards  a  country  where  liberty  raised  her  spirit- 
stirring  banner,  where  respect  and  security  were  insured 
to  a  fugitive  religion,  and  even  revenge  on  the  oppressor. 
If  we  consider  the  conflux  in  the  present  day  of  people 
to  Holland,  seeking  by  their  entrance  upon  her  territory 
to  be  reinvested  in  their  rights  as  men,  what  must  it  have 
been  at  a  time  when  the  rest  of  Europe  groaned  under 
a  heavy  bondage,  when  Amsterdam  was  nearly  the  only 
free  port  for  all  opinions  ?  Many  hundred  families  sought 
a  refuge  for  their  wealth  in  a  land  which  the  ocean  and 
domestic  concord  powerfully  combined  to  jirotect.  The 
republican  army  maintained  its  full  complement  without 
the  plough  being  stripped  of  hands  to  work  it.  Amid 
the  clash  of  arms  trade  and  industry  flourished,  and  the 
peaceful  citizen  enjoyed  in  anticipation  the  fruits  of 
liberty  which  foreign  blood  was  to  purchase  for  them. 
At  the  very  time  when  the  republic  of  Holland  was 
struarsflinor  for  existence  she  extended  her  dominions 
beyond  the  ocean,  and  was  quietly  occupied  in  erectmg 
her  East  Indian  Empire. 

Moreover,  Spain  maintained  this  expensive  war  with 
dead,  unfructifying  gold,  that  never  returned  into  the 
hand  which  gave  it  away,  while  it  raised  to  her  the  price 


REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  15 

of  every  necessary.  The  treasuries  of  tlie  republic  were 
industry  and  commerce.  Time  lessened  the  one  whilst 
it  multiplied  the  other,  and  exactly  in  tlie  same  propor- 
.  tion  that  the  resources  of  the  Spanish  government  became 
exhausted  by  the  long  continuance  of  the  war  the  re])ub- 
lic  began  to  reap  a  richer  harvest.  Its  field  was  sown 
sj^aringly  with  the  choice  seed  which  bore  fruit,  though 
late,  yet  a  hundredfold ;  but  the  tree  from  which  Phitip 
gathered  fruit  was  a  fallen  trunk  which  never  again 
became  verdant. 

Philip's  adverse  destiny  decreed  that  all  the  treasures 
which  be  lavished  for  the  oppression  of  the  Provinces 
should  contribute  to  enrich  them.  The  continual  outlay 
of  Spanish  gold  had  diffused  riches  and  luxury  through- 
out Europe;  but  the  increasing  wants  of  Europe  were 
supplied  chiefly  by  the  Netherlanders,  who  were  masters 
of  the  commerce  of  the  known  world,  and  who  by  their 
dealings  fixed  the  price  of  all  merchandise.  Even  during 
the  war  Philip  could  not  prohibit  his  own  subjects  from 
trading  with  the  republic  ;  nay,  he  could  not  even  desire 
it.  He  himself  furnished  the  rebels  with  the  means  of 
defraying  the  expenses  of  their  own  defence  ;  for  the  very 
war  wliich  was  to  ruin  them  increased  the  sale  of  their 
goods.  The  enormous  sums  expended  on  his  fleets  and 
armies  flowed  for  the  most  jDart  into  the  exchequer  of  the 
republic,  which  was  more  or  less  connected  with  the 
commercial  places  of  Flanders  and  Brabant.  Whatever 
Philip  attempted  against  the  rebels  oj^erated  indirectly 
to  their  advantage. 

The  sluggish  progress  of  this  war  did  the  king  as  much 
injury  as  it  benefited  the  rebels.  His  army  was  com])osed 
for  the  most  part  of  the  remains  of  those  victorious  troops 
which  had  gathered  their  laurels  under  Charles  V.  Old 
and  long  services  entitled  them  to  repose ;  many  of  them, 
whom  the  war  had  enriched,  impatiently  longed  for  their 
homes,  where  they  might  end  in  ease  a  life  of  hardship. 
Their  former  zeal,  their  heroic  spirit,  and  their  disciiDline 
relaxed  in  the  same  proportion  as  they  thought  they  had 
fully  satisfied  their  honor  and  their  duty,  and  as  they 
began  to  reap  at  last  the  reward  of  so  many  battles.  Be- 
sides, the  troops  which  had  been  accustomed  by  their 


16  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

irresistible  impetuosity  to  vanquisli  all  opponents  were 
necessarily  Avearied  out  by  a  war  which  was  carried  on 
not  so  much  against  men  as  against  the  elements;  which 
exercised  their  patience  more  than  it  gratified  their  love 
of  glory ;  and  where  there  was  less  of  danger  than  of  diffi- 
culty and  want  to  contend  with.  Neither  personal 
courage  nor  long  military  experience  was  of  avail  in  a 
country  whose  peculiar  features  gave  the  most  dastardly 
the  advantage.  Lastly,  a  single  discomfiture  on  foreign 
ground  did  them  more  injury  than  any  victories  gained 
over  an  enemy  at  home  could  profit  them.  With  the 
rebels  the  case  was  exactly  the  reverse.  In  so  protracted 
a  war,  in  which  no  decisive  battle  took  place,  the  weaker 
party  must  naturally  learn  at  last  the  art  of  defence  from 
the  stronger;  slight  defeats  accustomed  him  to  danger ; 
slight  victories  animated  liis  confidence. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  republican  army 
scarcely  dared  to  show  itself  in  the  field ;  the  long  con- 
tinuance of  the  struggle  practised  and  hardened  it.  As 
the  royal  armies  grew  wearied  of  victory,  the  confidence 
of  the  rebels  rose  with  their  improved  discij:)line  and 
experience.  At  last,  at  the  end  of  half  a  century,  master 
and  pupil  separated,  unsubdued,  and  equal  in  the  fight. 

Aijain,  throusrhout  the  war  the  rebels  acted  with  more 
concord  and  unanimity  than  the  royalists.  Before  the 
former  had  lost  their  first  leader  the  government  of  the 
Netherlands  had  passed  through  as  many  as  five  hands. 
The  Duchess  of  Parma's  indecision  soon  imi^arted  itself 
to  the  cabinet  of  Madrid,  which  in  a  short  time  tried  in 
succession  almost  every  system  of  ])olicy.  Duke  Alva's 
inflexible  sternness,  the  mildness  of  his  successor  Reques- 
cens,  Don  John  of  Austria's  insidious  cunning,  and  the 
active  and  imperious  mind  of  the  Prince  of  Parma  gave 
as  many  opposite  directions  to  the  war,  while  the  plan  of 
rebellion  remained  the  same  in  a  single  head,  who,  as  he 
saw  it  clearly,  pursued  it  Avith  vigor.  The  king's  greatest 
misfortune  was  that  right  principles  of  action  generally 
missed  the  right  momeiit  of  application.  In  the  com- 
mencement of  the  troubles,  when  the  advantage  was  as 
yet  clearly  on  the  king's  side,  when  prompt  resolution 
and  manly  firmness  might  have  crushed  the  rebellion  in 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEKLANDS.  17 

tlie  cradle,  the  reigns  of  government  were  allowed  to 
hang  loose  in  the  hands  of  a  woman.  After  the  outbreak 
had  come  to  an  open  revolt,  and  Avhen  the  strength  of 
the  factious  and  the  power  of  the  king  stood  more  equally 
balanced,  and  when  a  skilful  flexible  prudence  could  alone 
have  averted  the  impending  civil  war,  the  government 
devolved  on  a  man  who  was  eminently  deficient  in  this 
necessary  qualification.  So  watchful  an  observer  as 
William  the  Silent  failed  not  to  improve  every  advantage 
which  the  faulty  policy  of  his  adversary  presented,  and 
with  quiet  silent  industry  he  slowly  but  surely  pushed  on 
the  great  enterprise  to  its  accomplishment. 

But  why  did  not  Philip  II.  himself  appear  in  the 
Netherlands?  Why  did  he  prefer  to  employ  every  other 
means,  however  improbable,  rather  than  make  trial  of  the 
only  remedy  which  could  insure  success  ?  To  curb  the 
overgrown  power  and  insolence  of  the  nobility  there  was 
no  expedient  more  natural  than  the  presence  of  their 
master.  Before  royalty  itself  all  secondary  dignities 
must  necessarily  have  sunk  in  the  shade,  all  other  splendor 
be  dimmed.  Instead  of  the  truth  being  left  to  flow  slowly 
and  obscurely  through  impure  channels  to  the  distant 
throne,  so  that  procrastinated  measures  of  redress  gave 
time  to  ripen  ebullitions  of  the  moment  into  acts  of  delib- 
eration, his  own  penetrating  glance  would  at  once  have 
been  able  to  separate  truth  from  error ;  and  cold  policy 
alone,  not  to  speak  of  his  humanity,  Avould  have  saved 
the  land  a  million  citizens.  The  nearer  to  their  source 
the  more  weighty  would  his  edicts  have  been  ;  the  thicker 
they  fell  on  their  objects  the  weaker  and  the  more  dis- 
pirited would  have  become  the  efforts  of  the  rebels.  It 
costs  infinitely  more  to  do  an  evil  to  an  enemy  in  his 
presence  than  in  his  absence.  At  first  the  rebellion 
appeared  to  tremble  at  its  own  name,  and  long  sheltered 
itself  under  the  ingenious  pretext  of  defending  the  cause 
of  its  sovereign  against  the  arbitrary  assumptions  of  his 
own  viceroy.  Philip's  appearance  in  Brussels  would  have 
put  an  end  at  once  to  this  juggling.  In  that  case,  the 
rebels  would  have  been  compelled  to  act  up  to  their 
pretence,  or  to  cast  aside  the  mask,  and  so,  by  appearing 
in   their  true  shape,  condemn  themselves.     And  what  a 


18  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

relief  for  the  Netherlands  if  the  king's  presence  had  only- 
spared  them  those  evils  which  were  inflicted  upon  them 
without  his  knowledge,  and  contrary  to  his  will.  What 
gain,  too,  even  if  it  had  only  enabled  him  to  watch  over 
the  expenditure  of  the  vast  sums  which,  illegally  raised 
on  the  plea  of  meeting  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  dis- 
appeared in  the  plundering  hands  of  his  deputies. 

What  the  latter  were  compelled  to  extort  by  the  unnat- 
ural expedient  of  terror,  the  nation  would  have  been 
disposed  to  grant  to  the  sovereign  majesty.  That  which 
made  his  ministers  detested  would  have  rendered  the 
monarch  feared  ;  for  the  abuse  of  hereditary  power  is  less 
painfully  oppressive  than  the  abuse  of  delegated  authority. 
His  presence  would  have  saved  his  exchequer  thousands 
had  he  been  nothing  more  than  an  economical  despot ; 
and  even  had  he  been  less,  the  awe  of  his  person  Avould 
have  preserved  a  territory  which  was  lost  through  hatred 
and  contempt  for  his  instruments. 

In  the  same  manner,  as  the  oppression  of  the  people  of 
the  Netherlands  excited  the  sympathy  of  all  who  valued 
their  own  rights,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  their 
disobedience  and  defection  would  have  been  a  call  to  all 
princes  to  maintain  their  own  prerogatives  in  the  case  of 
their  neighbors.  But  jealousy  of  Spain  got  the  better  of 
political  sympathies,  and  the  first  powers  of  Europe 
arranged  themselves  more  or  less  openly  on  the  side  of 
freedom. 

Although  bound  to  the  house  of  Spain  by  the  ties  of 
relationship,  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.  gave  it  just 
cause  for  its  charge  against  him  of  secretly  favoring  the 
rebels.  By  the  offer  of  his  mediation  he  implicitly 
acknowledged  the  partial  justice  of  their  complaints,  and 
thereby  encouraged  them  to  a  resolute  perseverance  in 
their  demands.  Under  an  emperor  sincerely  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  the  Spanish  house,  William  of  Orange 
could  scarcely  have  drawn  so  many  troops  and  so  much 
money  from  Germany.  France,  without  openly  and 
formally  breaking  the  peace,  placed  a  prince  of  the  blood 
at  the  head  of  the  Netherlandish  rebels;  and  it  Avas  with 
French  gold  and  French  troops  that  the  operations  of  the 
latter  were  chiefly  conducted.     Elizabeth  of  England,  too, 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  19 

did  but  exercise  a  just  retaliation  and  revenge  in  })rotect- 
ing  the  rebels  against  their  legitimate  sovereign ;  and 
although  her  meagre  and  s{)aring  aid  availed  no  farther 
than  to  ward  off  utter  ruin  from  the  republic,  still  even 
this  was  infinitely  valuable  at  a  moment  when  nothing 
but  hope  could  have  supported  their  exhausted  courage. 
With  both  these  powers  Philip  at  the  time  was  at  peace, 
but  both  betrayed  him,  BetAveen  the  weak  and  the 
strong  honesty  often  ceases  to  appear  a  virtue ;  the  deli- 
cate ties  which  bind  equals  are  seldom  observed  towards 
him  whom  all  men  fear.  Philip  had  banished  truth  from 
political  intercourse  ;  he  himself  had  dissolved  all  morality 
between  kings,  and  had  made  artifice  the  di\  inity  of  cab- 
inets. Without  once  enjoying  the  advantages  of  his  pre- 
ponderating greatness,  he  had,  throughout  life,  to  contend 
with  the  jealousy  which  it  awakened  in  others.  Europe 
made  him  atone  for  the  possible  abuses  of  a  j)ower  of 
which  in  fact  he  never  had  the  full  possession. 

If  against  the  disparity  between  the  two  combatants, 
which,  at  first  sight,  is  so  astounding,  we  weigh  all  the 
incidental  circumstances  which  were  adverse  to  Spain, 
but  favorable  to  the  Netherlands,  that  which  is  supernat- 
ural in  this  event  will  disappear,  while  that  which  is 
extraordinary  will  still  remain  —  and  a  just  standard  will 
be  furnished  by  which  to  estimate  the  real  merit  of  these 
republicans  in  working  out  their  freedom.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  thought  that  so  accurate  a  calculation  of  the 
opposing  forces  could  have  preceded  the  undertaking 
itself,  or  that,  on  entering  this  unknown  sea,  they  already 
knew  the  shore  on  which  they  Avould  ultimately  be  landed. 
The  work  did  not  present  itself  to  the  mind  of  its  origin- 
ator in  the  exact  form  which  it  assumed  when  completed, 
any  more  than  the  mind  of  Luther  foresaw  the  eternal 
separation  of  creeds  Avhen  he  began  to  oppose  the  sale  of 
indulgences.  What  a  difference  between  the  modest 
procession  of  those  suitors  in  Brussels,  who  prayed  for  a 
more  humane  treatment  as  a  favor,  and  the  dreaded 
majesty  of  a  fi-ee  state,  which  treated  with  kings  as 
equals,  and  in  less  than  a  century  disposed  of  the  throne 
of  its  former  tvrant.  The  unseen  hand  of  fate  save  to 
the  discharged  arrow  a  higher  flight,  and  quite  a  different 


20  KEVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

direction  from  that  which  it  first  received  from  the  bow- 
string. In  the  womb  of  happy  Brabant  that  liberty  had 
its  birth  which,  torn  from  its  mother  in  its  earliest  in- 
fancy, was  to  gladden  the  so  despised  Holland.  But  the 
enterprise  must  not  be  less  thought  of  because  its  issue 
differed  from  the  first  design.  Man  Avorks  up,  smooths, 
and  fashions  the  rough  stone  which  the  times  bring  to 
him  ;  the  moment  and  the  instant  may  belong  to  him,  but 
accident  develops  the  history  of  the  world.  If  the  jias- 
sions  whicli  co-operated  actively  in  bringing  about  this 
event  were  only  not  unworthy  of  the  great  work  to  which 
they  were  unconsciously  subservient  —  if  only  the  powers 
which  aided  in  its  accomplishment  were  intrinsically  noble, 
if  only  the  single  actions  out  of  whose  concatenation  it 
wonderfully  arose  were  beautiful  and  great,  then  is  the 
event  grand,  interesting,  and  fruitful  for  us,  and  we  are 
at  liberty  to  wonder  at  the  bold  offspring  of  chance,  or 
rather  offer  up  our  admiration  to  a  higlier  intelligence. 

The  history  of  the  world,  like  the  laws  of  nature,  is 
consistent  with  itself,  and  simple  as  the  soul  of  man. 
Like  conditions  produce  like  phenomena.  On  the  same 
soil  where  now  the  Netherlanders  were  to  resist  their 
Spanish  tyrants,  their  forefathers,  the  Batavi  and  Belgae, 
fifteen  centuries  before,  combated  against  their  Roman 
oppressors.  Like  the  former,  submitting  reluctantly  to  a 
haughty  master,  and  misgoverned  by  rapacious  satraps, 
they  broke  off  their  chain  with  like  resolution,  and  tried 
their  fortune  in  a  similar  unequal  combat.  The  same 
pride  of  conquest,  the  same  national  gi-andeur,  marked 
the  Spaniard  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  Roman  of 
the  first ;  the  same  valor  and  discipline  distinguished  the 
armies  of  both,  their  battle  array  inspired  the  same  ter- 
ror. There  as  here  we  see  stratagem  in  combat  with 
superior  force,  and  firmness,  strengthened  by  unanimity, 
wearying  out  a  mighty  power  weakened  by  division ; 
then  as  now  private  hatred  armed  a  whole  nation ;  a 
single  man,  born  for  his  times,  revealed  to  his  fellow- 
slaves  the  dangerous  secret  of  their  power,  and  brought 
their  mute  grief  to  a  bloody  announcement.  "Confess, 
Batavians,"  cries  Claudius  Civilis  to  his  countrymen  in 
the  sacred  grove,  "  we  are  no  longer  treated,  as  formerly, 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  21 

by  these  Romans  as  allies,  but  ratlier  as  slaves.  We  are 
handed  over  to  their  jirefects  and  centurions,  who,  when 
satiated  with  our  plunder  and  Avith  our  blood,  make  way 
for  others,  who,  under  different  names,  renew  the  same 
outrages.  If  even  at  last  Rome  deigns  to  send  us  a 
legate,  he  oppresses  us  with  an  ostentatious  and  costly 
retinue,  and  with  still  more  intolerable  pride.  The  levies 
are  asjain  at  hand  which  tear  forever  children  from  their 
parents,  brothers  from  brothers.  Now,  Batavians,  is  our 
time.  Never  did  Rome  lie  so  prostrate  as  now.  Let  not 
their  names  of  legions  terrify  you.  There  is  nothing  in 
their  camps  but  old  men  and  plunder.  Our  infantry  and 
horsemen  are  strong ;  Germany  is  allied  to  us  by  blood, 
and  Gaul  is  ready  to  throw  oft'  its  yoke.  Let  Syria  serve 
them,  and  Asia  and  the  East,  who  are  used  to  bow  before 
kings ;  many  still  live  who  were  born  among  us  before 
tribute  was  paid  to  the  Romans.  The  gods  are  ever 
with  the  brave."  Solemn  religious  rites  hallowed  this 
consjiiracy,  like  the  League  of  the  Gueux ;  like  that,  it 
craftily  wrapped  itself  in  the  veil  of  submissiveness,  in 
the  majesty  of  a  great  name.  The  cohorts  of  Civilis 
swear  allegiance  on  the  Rhine  to  Vespasian  in  Syria,  as 
the  League  did  to  Philip  II.  The  same  arena  furnished 
the  same  plan  of  defence,  the  same  refuge  to  despair. 
Both  confided  their  wavering  fortunes  to  a  friendly  ele- 
ment; in  the  same  distress  Civilis  preserves  his  island, 
as  fifteen  centuries  after  him  William  of  Orange  did  the 
town  of  Leyden  —  through  an  artificial  inundation.  The 
valor  of  the  Batavi  disclosed  the  impotency  of  the 
world's  ruler,  as  the  noble  courage  of  their  descendants 
revealed  to  the  whole  of  Europe  the  decay  of  Spanish 
greatness.  The  same  fecundity  of  genius  in  the  generals 
of  botli  times  gave  to  the  war  a  similarly  obstinate  con- 
tinuance, and  nearly  as  doubtful  an  issue;  one  differ- 
ence, nevertheless,  distinguishes  them :  the  Romans  and 
Batavians  fought  humanely,  for  they  did  not  fight  for 
religion. 


BOOK  I. 

EARLIER   HISTORY    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS    UP   TO  THE 
SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 

Before  we  consider  the  immediate  history  of  this 
great  revolution,  it  will  be  advisable  to  go  a  few  steps 
back  into  the  ancient  records  of  the  country,  and  to  trace 
the  origin  of  that  constitution  which  we  lind  it  possessed 
of  at  the  time  of  this  remarkable  change. 

The  first  appearance  of  this  people  in  the  history  of 
the  world  is  the  moment  of  its  fall;  their  conquerors 
first  gave  them  a  political  existence.  The  extensive 
region  which  is  bounded  by  Germany  on  the  east,  on  the 
south  by  France,  on  the  north  and  northwest  by  the 
North  Sea,  and  which  Ave  comprehend  under  the  general 
name  of  the  Netherlands,  was,  at  the  time  when  the 
Itomans  invaded  Gaul,  divided  amongst  three  principal 
nations,  all  originally  of  German  descent,  German  insti- 
tutions, and  German  spirit.  The  Rhine  formed  its 
boundaries.  On  the  left  of  the  river  dwelt  the  Belgae, 
on  its  right  the  Frisii,  and  the  Batavi  on  the  island  which 
its  two  arms  then  formed  with  the  ocean.  All  these  sev- 
eral nations  were  sooner  or  later  reduced  into  subjection 
by  the  Romans,  but  the  conquerors  themselves  give  us 
the  most  glorious  testimony  to  their  valor.  The  Belgae, 
writes  Ca3sar,  were  the  only  people  amongst  the  Gauls 
who  repulsed  the  invasion  of  the  Teutones  and  Cimbri. 
The  Batavi,  Tacitus  tells  us,  surpassed  all  the  tribes  on 
the  Rhine  in  bravery.  This  fierce  nation  paid  its  tribute 
in  soldiers,  and  was  reserved  by  its  conquerors,  like  arrow 
and  sword,  only  for  battle.  The  Romans  themselves 
acknowledged  the  Batavian  liorsemen  to  be  their  best 
cavalry.  Like  the  Swiss  at  this  day,  they  formed  for  a 
long  time  the  body-guard  of  the  Roman  Emperor;  their 
wild  courage  terrified  the  Dacians,  as  they  saw  them,  in 
full  armor,  swimming  across  the  Danube.  The  Batavi 
accompanied  Agricola  in  his  expedition  against  Britain, 
and  helped  him  to  conquer  that  island.  The  Frieses 
were,  of  all,  the  last  subdued,  and  the  first  to  regain 
22 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  23 

their  liberty.  The  morasses  among  which  they  dwelt 
attracted  the  conquerors  later,  and  enhanced  the  price  of 
conquest.  The  Roman  Drusus,  who  made  war  in  these 
regions,  had  a  canal  cut  from  the  Rhine  into  the  Flevo, 
tlie  present  Zuyder  Zee,  through  which  the  Roman  fleet 
])enetrated  into  the  North  Sea,  and  from  thence,  entering 
the  mouths  of  the  Ems  and  the  Weser,  found  an  easy 
passage  into  the  interior  of  Germany. 

Through  four  centuries  we  find  Batavian  troops  in  the 
Roman  armies,  but  after  the  time  of  Honorius  their  name 
disa]>pears  from  history.  Presently  we  discover  their 
island  overrun  by  the  Franks,  who  again  lost  themselves 
in  the  adjoining  country  of  Belgium.  The  Frieses  threw 
off  the  yoke  of  their  distant  and  j^owerless  rulers,  and 
again  appeared  as  a  free,  and  even  a  conquering  people, 
who  governed  themselves  by  their  own  customs  and  a 
remnant  of  Roman  laws,  and  extended  their  limits  be- 
yond the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  Of  all  the  provinces 
of  the  Nethei'lands,  Friesland  especially  had  suffered  the 
least  from  the  irruptions  of  strange  tribes  and  foreign 
customs,  and  for  centuries  retained  traces  of  its  original 
institutions,  of  its  national  spirit  and  manners,  Avhich 
have  not,  even  at  the  present  day,  entirely  disappeared. 

The  epoch  of  the  immigration  of  nations  destroyed 
the  original  form  of  most  of  these  tribes ;  other  mixed 
races  arose  in  their  place,  Avith  other  constitutions.  In 
the  general  irruption  the  towns  and  encampments  of  the 
Romans  disappeared,  and  with  them  the  memorials  of 
their  wise  government,  which  they  had  employed  the 
natives  to  execute.  The  neglected  dikes  once  more 
yielded  to  the  violence  of  the  streams  and  to  the  en- 
croachments of  the  ocean.  Those  Avonders  of  labor,  and 
creations  of  human  skill,  the  canals,  dried  up,  the  rivers 
changed  their  course,  the  continent  and  the  sea  con- 
founded their  olden  limits,  and  the  nature  of  the  soil 
changed  Avith  its  inhabitants.  So,  too,  the  connection  of 
the  two  eras  seems  effaced,  and  Avith  a  new  race  a  new 
history  commences. 

The  monarchy  of  the  Franks,  which  arose  out  of  the 
ruins  of  Roman  Gaul,  had,  in  the  sixth  and  seventli  cen- 
turies, seized  all  the  provinces  of  the  Netherlands,  and 


24  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

planted  there  the  Christian  faitli.  After  an  obstinate 
war  Charles  Martel  subdued  to  the  French  crown  Fries- 
land,  the  last  ot"  all  the  free  provinces,  and  by  his  vic- 
tories paved  a  way  for  the  gospel.  Charlemagne  united 
all  these  countries,  and  formed  of  them  one  division  of 
the  mighty  empire  which  he  had  constructed  out  of  Ger- 
many, France,  and  Lombardy.  As  under  his  descend- 
ants this  vast  dominion  was  again  torn  into  fragments, 
so  the  Netherlands  became  at  times  German,  at  others 
French,  or  then  again  Lotheringian  Provinces;  and  at 
last  we  find  them  under  both  the  names  of  Friesland  and 
Lower  Lotheringia. 

With  the  Franks  the  feudal  system,  the  offspring  of 
the  North,  also  came  into  these  lands,  and  here,  too,  as  in 
all  other  countries,  it  degenerated.  The  more  powerful 
vassals  gradually  made  themselves  independent  of  the 
crown,  and  the  royal  governoi's  usurped  the  countries 
they  were  appointed  to  govern.  But  the  rebellious  vas- 
sals could  not  maintain  their  usurpations  without  the  aid 
of  their  own  dependants,  wdiose  assistance  they  w'ere  com- 
pelled to  purchase  by  new  concessions.  At  the  same  time 
the  church  became  powerful  through  pious  usurpations  and 
donations,  and  its  abbey  lands  and  episcopal  sees  acquired 
an  independent  existence.  Thus  w^ere  the  Netherlands  in 
the  tenth,  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries  split 
up  into  several  small  sovereignties,  whose  possessors  did 
homage  at  one  time  to  the  German  Emperor,  at  another 
to  the  kings  of  France.  By  purchase,  marriages,  legacies, 
and  also  by  conquest,  several  of  these  provinces  were 
often  united  under  one  suzerain,  and  thus  in  the  fifteenth 
century  we  see  the  house  of  Burgundy  in  possession  of 
the  chief  part  of  the  Netherlands.  With  more  or  less 
right  Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  had  united  as 
many  as  eleven  provinces  under  his  authority,  and  to 
these  his  son,  Charles  the  Bold,  added  two  others,  acquired 
by  force  of  arms.  ThiTS  imperceptibly  a  new  state  arose 
in  Europe,  w^hich  wanted  nothing  but  the  name  to  be  the 
most  flourishing  kingdom  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe. 
These  extensive  ])ossessions  made  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy 
formidable  neighbors  to  France,  and  tempted  the  restless 
spirit  of  Charles  the  Bold  to  devise  a  scheme  of  conquest, 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHEELANDS.  25 

embracing  the  whole  line  of  country  from  the  Zuyder 
Zee  and  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  down  to  Alsace.  Tlie 
almost  inexhaustible  resources  of  this  prince  justify  in 
some  measure  this  bold  project.  A  formidable  army 
threatened  to  carry  it  into  execution.  Already  Switzer- 
land trembled  for  her  liberty;  but  deceitful  fortune 
abandoned  him  in  three  terrible  battles,  and  the  infat- 
uated hero  was  lost  in  the  melee  of  the  living  and  the 
dead,* 

The  sole  heiress  of  Charles  the  Bold,  Maria,  at  once 
the  richest  princess  and  the  unhap])y  Helen  of  that  time, 
whose  wooing  brought  misery  on  her  inheritance,  was 
now  the  centre  of  attraction  to  the  whole  known  world. 
Among  her  suitors  appeared  two  great  princes.  King 
Louis  XI.  of  France,  for  his  son,  the  young  Dauphin,  and 
Maximilian  of  Austria,  son  of  tlie  Emperor  Frederic  III. 
The  successful  suitor  was  to  become  the  most  powerful 
prince  in  Europe  ;  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  this  quarter 
of  the  globe  began  to  fear  for  its  balance  of  power. 
Louis,  the  more  powerful  of  the  two,  was  ready  to  back 
liis  suit  by  force  of  arms  ;  but  the  people  of  the  Nether- 
lands, who  disposed  of  the  hand  of  their  princess,  passed 
by  this  dreaded  neighbor,  and  decided  in  favor  of  Maxi- 
milian, Avhose  more  remote  territories  and  more  limited 
power  seemed  less  to  threaten  the  liberty  of  their  country. 
A  deceitful,  unfortunate  policy,  which,  through  a  strange 
dispensation  of  heaven,  only  accelerated  the  melancholy 
fate  which  it  was  intended  to  prevent. 

To  Philip  the  Fair,  the  son  of  Maria  and  Maximilian,  a 
Spanish  bride  brought  as  her  portion  that  extensive  king- 
dom which  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  had  recently  founded  ; 
and  Charles  of  Austria,  his  son,  was  born  lord  of  the 
kingdoms  of  Spain,  of  the  tAvo  Sicilies,  of  the  New  World, 

*  A  page  who  had  seen  him  fall  a  tew  days  after  the  battle  conducted  the 
victors  to  the  spot,  and  saved  his  remains  from  an  ignominious  oblivion. 
His  body  was  dragged  from  out  of  a  pool,  in  which  it  was  fast  frozen, 
naked,  and  so  disfigured  with  wounds  that  with  great  difficulty  he  was  recog- 
nized, by  the  well-known  deficiency  of  some  of  his  teetli,  and  by  remarkably 
long  flnger-nails.  But  that,  notTvithstanding  the  marks,  there  were  still 
incredulous  people  who  doubted  his  death,  and  looked  for  his  reappearance, 
is  proved  by  the  missive  in  which  Louis  XI.  called  upon  the  Biirgundian 
States  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  the  Crown  of  France.  "If,"  the  pas- 
sage runs,  "  Duke  Charles  should  slill  be  living,  you  shall  be  released  from 
youi-  oath  to  me."    Coniines,  t.  iii.,  Preuves  aes  Memoires,  495,  497. 


26  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

and  of  tlio  Netherlands.     In  tlie  latter  country  the  com- 
monalty emancipated   themselves  much  earlier  than  in 
other  feudal  states,  and  quickly  attained  to  an  independ- 
ent political   existence.     The  favorable  situation   of  the 
country   on   the    North    Sea   and   on    great     navigable 
rivers   early  awakened   the   spirit   of   commerce,   which 
rapidly  peopled  the  towns,  encouraged  industry  and  the 
arts,  attracted  foreigners,  and   diffused  prosperity   and 
affluence   among   them.      However    contemptuously   the 
warlike  policy  of  tliose  times   looked  down  upon  every 
peaceful  and  useful  occupation,  the  rulers  of  the  country 
could  not  fail  altogether  to  perceive  the  essential  advan- 
tages they  derived  from  such  pursuits.     The  increasing 
po}3ulation   of    their    territories,    the    different    imposts 
which  they  extorted  from  natives  and  foreigners  under 
the  various  titles  of  tolls,  customs,  highway  rates,  escort 
money,  bridge  tolls,  market  fees,  escheats,  and   so  fortli, 
were  too  valuable  considerations  to  allow  them  to  remain 
indifferent  to  the  sources  from  which  they  were  derived. 
Their  own  rapacity  made  them  promoters  of  trade,  and,  as 
often  happens,  barbarism  itself  rudely  nursed  it,  until  at 
last  ahealtliier  policy  assumed  its  place.     In  the  course  of 
time  they  invited  the  Lombard  merchants  to  settle  among 
them,  and  accorded  to  the   towns  some  valuable  privi- 
leges and  an  independent  jurisdiction,  by  which  the  latter 
acquired  uncommon  extraordinary  credit  and  influence. 
The  numerous  wars  which  the  counts  and  dukes  carried 
on  with  one  another,  or  witli  their  neighbors,  made  them 
in  some  measure  dependent  on  the  good-will  of  the  towns, 
who  by  their  wealth  obtained  weiglit  and  consideration, 
and  for  the  subsidies  which   they  afforded  failed   not  to 
extort  important  privileges  in   return.     Tliese  privileges 
ot  the  commonalties  increased  as  tlie  crusades  with  their 
expensive  equipment  augumented   the  necessities  of  the 
nobles  ;  as  a  new  road  to  Europe  was  opened  for  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  East,  and  as  wide-spreading  luxury  created 
new  wants  to  their  princes.    Thus  as  early  as  the  eleventli 
and  twelfth  centuries  we  find  in  these  lands  a  mixed  form 
of  government,  in  which  the  prerogative  of  the  sovereign 
is  greatly  limited  by  the  privileges  of  the  estates;  that  is 
to  say,  of  the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  the  municipalities. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  Z  ( 

These,  under  tlie  name  of  States,  assembled  as  often  as 
the  wants  of  the  province  required  it.  Without  their 
consent  no  new  laws  were  valid,  no  war  could  be  carried 
on,  and  no  taxes  levied,  no  change  made  in  the  coinage, 
and  no  foreigner  admitted  to  any  otfice  of  government. 
All  the  provinces  enjoyed  these  privileges  in  common ; 
others  were  j^eculiar  to  the  various  districts.  The  supreme 
government  was  hereditary,  but  the  son  did  not  enter  on 
the  rights  of  his  father  before  he  had  solemnly  sworn  to 
maintain  the  existing  constitution. 

Necessity  is  the  fii'st  lawgiver;  all  the  wants  which  had 
to  be  met  by  this  constitution  were  originally  of  a  com- 
mercial nature.  Thus  the  whole  constitution  W'as 
founded  on  commerce,  and  the  laws  of  the  nation  Avere 
adapted  to  its  pursuits.  The  last  clause,  which  excluded 
foreigners  from  all  offices  of  trust,  was  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  the  preceding  articles.  So  complicated  and 
artificial  a  relation  between  the  sovereign  and  his  people, 
wdiich  in  many  provinces  was  further  modified  according 
to  the  peculiar  wants  of  each,  and  frequently  of  some 
single  city,  required  for  its  maintenance  the  liveliest  zeal 
for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  combined  with  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  them.  From  a  foreigner  neither  could 
well  be  expected.  This  law,  besides,  was  enforced  recip- 
rocally in  each  particular  province  ;  so  that  in  Brabant 
no  Fleming,  in  Zealand  no  Hollander,  could  hold  office ; 
and  it  continued  in  force  even  after  all  these  provinces 
were  united  under  one  government. 

Above  all  others,  Brabant  enjoyed  the  highest  degree 
of  freedom.  Its  privileges  were  esteemed  so  valuable 
that  many  mothers  from  the  adjacent  provinces  removed 
thither  about  the  time  of  their  accouchment,  in  order  to 
entitle  their  children  to  particijiate,  by  birth,  in  all  the 
immunities  of  that  favored  country;  just  as,  says  Strada, 
one  improves  the  plants  of  a  rude  climate  by  removing 
them  to  the  soil  of  a  milder. 

After  the  House  of  Burgundy  had  imited  several  prov- 
inces under  its  dominion,  the  separate  provincial  assem- 
blies which,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  independent 
tribunals,  were  made  subject  to  a  supreme  court  at 
Malines,  which  incorporated  the  various  judicatures  into 


28  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

one  body,  and  decided  in  the  last  resort  all  civil  and  crim- 
inal appeals.  The  separate  independence  of  the  provinces 
was  thus  abolished,  and  the  supreme  power  vested  in  the 
senate  at  Malines. 

After  the  death  of  Charles  the  Bold  the  states  did  not 
neglect  to  avail  themselves  of  the  embarassment  of  their 
duchess,  who,  threatened  l)y  France,  was  consequently  in 
their  power.  Holland  and  Zealand  compelled  her  to  sign 
a  great  charter,  which  secured  to  them  the  most  impor- 
tant sovereign  rights.  The  people  of  Ghent  carried  their 
insolence  to  such  a  pitch  that  they  arbitrarily  dragged  the 
favorites  of  Maria,  Avho  had  the  misfortune  to  displease 
them,  before  their  own  tribunals,  and  beheaded  them 
before  the  eyes  of  that  princess.  During  the  short  gov- 
ernment of  the  Duchess  Maria,  from  her  father's  death 
to  her  marriage,  the  conmions  obtained  powers  which  few 
free  states  enjoyed.  After  her  death  her  husband,  Maxi- 
milian, illegally  assumed  the  government  as  guardian  of 
his  son.  Offended  by  this  invasion  of  their  rights,  the 
estates  refused  to  acknowledge  his  authority,  and  could 
only  be  brought  to  receive  him  as  a  viceroy  for  a  stated 
period,  and  under  conditions  ratified  by  oath. 

INIaximilian,  after  he  became  Koman  Emperor,  fancied 
that  he  might  safely  venture  to  violate  the  constitution. 
He  imposed  extraordinary  taxes  on  the  provinces,  gave 
official  appointments  to  Burgundians  and  Germans,  and 
introduced  foreign  troops  into  the  provinces.  But  the 
jealousy  of  these  republicans  kept  pace  with  the  power  of 
their  regent.  As  he  entered  Bruges  with  a  large  retinue 
of  foreigners,  the  people  flew  to  arms,  made  themselves 
masters  of  his  person,  and  placed  him  in  confinement  in 
the  castle.  In  spite  of  the  intercession  of  the  Imperial 
and  Roman  courts,  he  did  not  again  obtain  his  freedom 
until  security  had  been  given  to  the  people  on  all  the 
disputed  points. 

The  security  of  life  and  property  arising  from  mild 
laws,  and  an  equal  administration  of  justice,  had  encour- 
aged activity  and  industry.  In  continual  contest  with 
tiie  ocean  and  ra])id  rivers,  which  poured  their  violence 
on  the  neighboring  lowlands,  and  whose  force  it  was  re- 
quisite to  break  by  embankments  and  canals,  this  people 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  29 

had  early  learned  to  observe  the  natural  objects  around 
them ;  by  industry  and  perseverance  to  defy  an  element 
of  superior  power  ;  and  like  the  Egyptian,  instructed  by 
his  Nile,  to  exercise  their  inventive  genius  and  acuteness 
in  self-defence.  The  natural  fertility  of  their  soil,  which 
favored  agriculture  and  the  breeding  of  cattle,  tended  at 
the  same  time  to  increase  the  population.  Their  happy 
position  on  the  sea  and  the  great  navigable  rivers  of  Ger- 
many and  France,  many  of  Avhich  debouched  on  their 
coasts;  the  numerous  artificial  canals  which  intersected 
the  land  in  all  directions,  imparted  life  to  navigation ; 
and  the  facility  of  internal  communication  between  the 
provinces,  soon  created  and  fostered  a  commercial  spirit 
among  these  people. 

The  neighboring  coasts,  Denmark  and  Britain,  were  the 
first  visited  by  their  vessels.  The  English  wool  which 
they  brought  back  employed  thousands  of  industrious 
hands  in  Bruges,  Ghent,  and  Antwerp ;  and  as  early  as 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  cloths  of  Flanders  were 
extensively  worn  in  France  and  Germany.  In  the  eleventh 
century  wv.  find  ships  of  Friesland  in  the  Belt,  and  even 
in  the  Levant.  This  enterprising  people  ventured,  with- 
out a  comfjass,  to  steer  under  the  North  Pole  round  to 
the  most  northerly  point  of  Russia.  From  the  Wendish 
towns  the  Netherlands  received  a  share  in  the  Levant 
trade,  which,  at  that  time,  still  passed  from  the  Black  Sea 
through  the  Russian  territories  to  the  Baltic.  When,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  this  trade  began  to  decline,  the 
Crusades  having  opened  a  new  road  through  the  Mediter- 
ranean for  Indian  merchandise,  and  after  the  Italian 
towns  had  iisurped  this  lucrative  branch  of  commerce, 
and  tlie  great  Hanseatic  League  had  been  formed  in  Ger- 
many, the  Netherlands  became  the  most  important  empo- 
rium between  the  north  and  south.  As  yet  the  use  of  the 
compass  was  not  general,  and  the  merchantmen  sailed 
slowly  and  laboriously  along  the  coasts.  The  ports  on 
the  Baltic  were,  during  the  winter  months,  for  the  most 
part  frozen  and  inaccessible.  Ships,  therefore,  which 
could  not  well  accomplish  within  the  year  the  long  voyage 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Belt,  gladly  availed  them- 
selves of  harbors  which  lay  half-way  between  the  twc. 


30  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHEllLANDS. 

With  an  immense  continent  beliind  tliem  with  wliich 
navigable  streams  kept  up  tlieir  communication,  and 
towards  the  west  and  north  open  to  the  ocean  by  commo- 
dious harbors,  this  country  appeared  to  be  expressly 
formed  for  a  place  of  resort  for  different  nations,  and 
for  a  centre  of  commerce.  The  principal  towns  of  the 
Netherlands  were  established  marts.  Portuguese,  Span- 
iards, Italians,  French,  Britons,  Germans,  Danes,  and 
Swedes  thronged  to  them  with  the  produce  of  every 
country  in  the  world.  Competition  insured  cheapness; 
industry  was  stimulated  as  it  found  a  ready  market  for 
its  productions.  With  the  necessary  exchange  of  money 
arose  the  commerce  in  bills,  which  opened  a  new  and 
fruitful  source  of  wealth.  The  princes  of  the  country,  ac- 
quainted at  last  with  their  true  interest,  encouraged  the 
merchant  by  important  immunities,  and  neglected  not  to 
protect  their  commerce  by  advantageous  treaties  with 
foreign  powers.  When,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  several 
provinces  were  united  under  one  rule,  they  discontinued 
tlieir  private  wars,  Avhich  had  proved  so  injurious,  and 
their  separate  interests  were  now  more  intimately  con- 
nected by  a  common  government.  Tlieir  commerce  and 
affluence  prospered  in  the  lap  of  a  long  peace,  which  the 
formidable  power  of  their  princes  extorted  from  the 
neighboring  monarchs.  The  Burgundian  flag  was  feared 
in  ever}'^  sea,  the  dignity  of  their  sovereign  gave  support 
to  their  undertakings,  and  the  enterprise  of  a  private 
individual  became  the  affair  of  a  powerful  state.  Such 
vigorous  protection  soon  placed  them  in  a  position  even 
to  renounce  the  Hanseatic  League,  and  to  pursue  this 
daring  enemy  through  every  sea.  The  Hanseatic  mer- 
chants, against  whom  the  coasts  of  Spain  were  closed, 
were  compelled  at  last,  however  reluctantly,  to  visit  the 
Flemish  fairs,  and  purchase  their  Spanish  goods  in  the 
markets  of  the  Netherlands. 

Bruges,  in  Flanders,  was,  in  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries,  the  central  point  of  the  Avhole  commerce 
of  Europe,  and  the  great  market  of  all  nations.  In  the 
year  1468  a  hundred  and  fifty  merchant  vessels  were 
counted  entering  the  harbor  of  Sluys  at  one  time.  Be- 
sides the  rich  factories  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  there 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  31 

were  here  fifteen  trading  companies,  Avith  their  counting- 
houses,  and  many  factories  and  merchants'  families  from 
every  European  country.  Here  was  established  the  mar- 
ket of  all  northern  products  for  the  south,  and  of  all 
southern  and  Levantine  products  for  the  north.  These 
passed  through  the  Sound,  and  up  the  Rhine,  in  Hanseatic 
vessels  to  Upper  Germany,  or  were  transported  by  land- 
carriage  to  Brunswick  and  Luneburg. 

As  in  the  common  course  of  human  affairs,  so  here  also 
a  licentious  luxury  followed  prosperity.  The  seductive 
example  of  Philip  the  Good  could  not  but  accelerate  its 
approach.  The  court  of  the  Burgundian  dukes  w^as  the 
most  voluptuous  and  magnificent  in  Europe,  Italy  itself  not 
excepted.  The  costly  dress  of  the  higher  classes,  which 
afterwards  served  as  patterns  to  the  Spaniards,  and  event- 
ually, with  other  Burgundian  customs,  passed  over  to  the 
court  of  Austria,  soon  descended  to  the  lower  orders,  and. 
the  meanest  citizen  nursed  his  person  in  velvet  and  silk.* 

Comines,  an  author  who  travelled  through  the  Nether- 
lands about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  tells  us 
that  pride  had  already  attended  their  prosperity.  The 
pomp  and  vanity  of  dress  was  carried  by  both  sexes  to 
extravagance.  The  luxury  of  the  table  had  never  reached 
so  great  a  height  among  any  other  people.  The  immoral 
assemblage  of  both  sexes  at  bathing-places,  and  such  other 
places  of  reunion  for  pleasure  and  enjoyment,  had  ban- 
ished all  shame  —  and  we  are  not  here  speaking  of  the 
usual  luxuriousness  of  the  higher  ranks ;  the  females  of 
the  common  class  abandoned  themselves  to  such  extrava- 
gances without  limit  or  measure. 

But  how  much  more  cheering  to  the  philanthropist  is 

*  Philip  the  Good  was  too  profvise  a  prince  to  amass  treasures  ;  never- 
theless Charles  the  Bold  found  accumulated  among  his  effects,  a  greater 
store  of  table  services,  jewels,  carpets,  and  linen  than  three  rich  princedoms 
of  that  time  together  possessed,  and  over  and  above  all  a  treasure  of  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  ready  money.  The  riches  of  this  prince,  and  of 
the  Burgundian  people,  lay  exposed  on  the  battle-fields  of  Granson,  Murten, 
and  Nancy.  Here  a  Swiss  soldier  drew  from  the  finger  of  Charles  the  Bold 
that  celebrated  diamond  which  was  long  esteemed  the  largest  in  Europe, 
which  even  now  sparkles  in  the  crown  of  France  as  the  second  in  size,  but 
which  the  unwitting  tinder  sold  for  a  florin.  The  Swiss  exchanged  the  silver 
they  found  for  tin,  and  the  gold  for  copper,  and  tore  into  pieces  the  costly 
tents  of  cloth  of  gold.  The  value  of  the  spoil  of  silver,  gold,  and  jewels 
which  was  taken  has  been  estimated  at  three  millions.  Charles  and  his  army 
had  advanced  to  the  combat,  not  like  foes  who  purpose  battle,  but  like  con- 
querors who  adorn  themselves  after  victory. 


32  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

this  extravagance  than  the  miserable  frugality  of  want, 
and  the  barbarous  virtues  of  ignorance,  wliich  at  that 
time  oppressed  nearly  the  whole  of  Europe  !  The  Bur- 
gundian  era  shines  pleasingly  forth  from  those  dark  ages, 
like  a  lovely  spring  day  amid  the  showers  of  February. 
But  this  flourishing  condition  tempted  the  Flemish  towns 
at  last  to  their  ruin ;  Ghent  and  Bruges,  giddy  with  lib- 
erty and  success,  declared  war  against  Philip  the  Good, 
the"^  ruler  of  eleven  provinces,  wliich  ended  as  unfortu- 
nately as  it  was  presumptuously  commenced.  Ghent 
alone  lost  many  thousand  men  in  an  engagement  near 
Havre,  and  was  compelled  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the 
victor  by  a  contribution  of  four  hundred  thousand  gold 
florins.  All  the  municipal  functionaries,  and  two  thousand 
of  the  principal  citizens,  went,  stripped  to  their  shirts, 
barefooted,  and  with  heads  uncovered,  a  mile  out  of  tlie 
town  to  meet  the  duke,  and  on  their  knees  supplicated 
for  pardon.  On  this  occasion  they  were  deprived  of 
several  valuable  privileges,  an  irreparable  loss  for  their 
future  commerce.  In  the  year  1482  they  engaged  in  a 
war,  with  no  better  success,  against  Maximilian  of  Aus- 
tria, with  a  view  to  deprive  him  of  the  guardianship 
of  his  son,  which,  in  contravention  of  his  charter,  he  had 
unjustly  assumed.  In  1487  the  town  of  Bruges  placed 
the  archduke  himself  in  confinement,  and  put  some  of  his 
most  eminent  ministers  to  death.  To  avenge  his  son  the 
Emperor  Frederic  III.  entered  their  territory  with  an 
army,  and,  blockading  for  ten  years  the  harbor  of  Sluys, 
put  a  stop  to  their  entire  trade.  On  this  occasion  Am- 
sterdam and  Antwerp,  whose  jealousy  had  long  been 
roused  by  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  Flemish  towns, 
lent  him  the  most  impoi'tant  assistance.  The  Italians 
began  to  bring  their  own  silk-stuffs  to  Antwerp  for  sale, 
and  the  Flemish  cloth-woi-kers  likewise,  who  had  settled 
in  England,  sent  their  goods  thither ;  and  thus  the  town 
of  Bruges  lost  two  important  branches  of  trade.  The 
Hanseatic  League  had  long  been  offended  at  their  over- 
weening  pride ;  and  it  now  left  them  and  removed  its 
factory  to  Antwerp.  In  the  year  1516  all  the  foreign 
merchants  left  the  town  except  only  a  few  Spaniards; 
but  its  prosperity  faded  as  slowly  as  it  had  bloomed. 


liEVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  33 

Antwerp  received,  in  the  sixteentli  century,  the  trade 
wliich  the  luxuriousuess  of  the  Flemish  towns  had  ban- 
ished ;  and  under  the  government  of  Charles  V.  Antwerp 
was  the  most  stirring  and  splendid  city  in  the  Christian 
■world.  A  stream  like  the  Scheldt,  whose  broad  mouth, 
in  tlie  immediate  vicinity,  shared  with  the  North  Sea  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide,  and  could  carry  vessels  of 
the  largest  tonnage  under  the  walls  of  Antwerp,  made 
it  the  natural  resort  for  all  vessels  Avhich  visited  that 
coast.  Its  free  fairs  attracted  men  of  business  from  all 
countries.*  The  industry  of  the  nation  had,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century,  reached  its  greatest  height.  Tlie 
culture  of  grain,  flax,  the  breeding  of  cattle,  the  chase,  and 
fisheries,  enriched  the  peasant;  arts,  manufactures,  and 
trade  gave  wealth  to  the  burghers.  Flemish  and  Braban- 
tine  manufactures  were  long  to  be  seen  in  Arabia,  Persia, 
and  India.  Their  ships  covered  the  ocean,  and  in  the 
Black  Sea  contended  Avith  the  Genoese  for  supremacy. 
It  was  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  seaman  of  the 
Netherlands  that  he  made  sail  at  all  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  never  laid  up  for  the  winter. 

When  the  new  route  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was 
discovered,  and  the  East  India  trade  of  Portugal  under- 
mined that  of  the  Levant,  the  Netherlands  did  not  feel 
the  blow  which  was  inflicted  on  the  Italian  republics. 
The  Portuguese  established  their  mart  in  Brabant,  and 
the  spices  of  Calicut  were  displayed  for  sale  in  the  mar- 
kets of  Antwerp.  Hither  poured  the  West  Indian  mer- 
chandise, with  which  the  indolent  pride  of  Spain  repaid 
tlie  industry  of  the  Netlierlands.  The  East  Indian  market 
attracted  the  most  celebrated  commercial  liouses  from 
Florence,  Lucca,  and  Genoa;  and  the  Fuggers  and  Wel- 
sers  from  Augsburg.  Here  the  Hanse  towns  brought  the 
Avares  of  the  north,  and  here  the  English  company  had  a 
factory.  Here  art  and  nature  seemed  to  expose  to  view 
all  their  riches ;  it  Avas  a  splendid  exhibition  of  the  works 
of  the  Creator  and  of  the  creature. 

Their  renown  soon  diffused  itself  through  the  world. 
Even  a  company  of  Turkish  merchants,  towards  the  end 

*  Two  such  fairs  lasted  forty  days,  and  all  the  goods  sold  there  were 
duty  free. 


34  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

of  this  century,  solicited  permission  to  settle  here,  and  to 
supply  the  products  of  the  East  by  way  of  Greece.  With 
the  trade  in  goods  they  held  also  the  exchange  of  money. 
Their  bills  passed  current  in  the  farthest  parts  of  the 
globe.  Antwerp,  it  is  asserted,  then  transacted  more 
extensive  and  more  ini])ortant  business  in  a  single  month 
than  Venice,  at  its  most  flourishing  jDcriod,  in  two  whole 
years. 

In  the  year  1491  the  Hanseatic  League  held  its  solemn 
meetings  in  this  town,  which  had  formerly  assembled  in 
Lubeck  alone.  In  1531  the  exchange  was  erected,  at  that 
time  the  most  splendid  in  all  Europe,  and  which  fulfilled 
its  proud  inscription.  The  town  now  reckoned  one  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants.  The  tide  of  human  beings, 
which  incessantly  poured  into  it,  exceeds  all  belief.  Be- 
tween two  hundred  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  ships  Avere 
often  seen  loading  at  one  time  in  its  harbor;  no  day 
passed  on  which  the  boats  entering  inwards  and  outwards 
did  not  amount  to  more  than  five  hundred  ;  on  market 
days  the  number  amounted  to  eight  or  nine  hundred. 
Daily  more  than  two  hundred  carriages  drove  through  its 
gates ;  above  two  thousand  loaded  wagons  arrived  every 
week  from  Germany,  France,  and  Lorraine,  without  reck- 
oning the  farmers'  carts  and  corn-vans,  which  were  seldom 
less  than  ten  thousand  in  number.  Thirty  thousand  hands 
were  employed  by  the  English  company  alone.  The  mar- 
ket dues,  tolls,  and  excise  brought  millions  to  the  govern- 
ment annually.  We  can  form  some  idea  of  the  resources 
of  the  nation  from  the  fact  that  the  extraordinary  taxes 
which  they  were  obliged  to  pay  to  Charles  V.  towards 
his  numerous  wars  were  computed  at  forty  millions  of  gold 
ducats. 

For  this  affluence  the  Netherlands  were  as  miich  in- 
debted to  their  liberty  as  to  the  natural  advantages  of 
their  country.  Uncertain  laws  and  the  despotic  sway 
of  a  rapacious  prince  would  quickly  have  blighted  all  the 
blessings  which  propitious  nature  had  so  abundantly  lav- 
ished on  them.  The  inviolable  sanctity  of  the  laws  can 
alone  secure  to  the  citizen  the  fruits  of  his  industry,  and 
inspire  him  with  that  happy  confidence  which  is  the  soul 
of  all  activity. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  35 

The  genius  of  this  people,  developed  by  the  spirit  of 
commerce,  and  by  the  intercourse  with  so  many  nations, 
shone  in  useful  inventions ;  in  the  lap  of  abundance  and 
liberty  all  the  noble  arts  were  carefully  cultivated  and 
carried  to  perfection.  From  Italy,  to  which  Cosmo  de 
Medici  had  lately  restored  its  golden  age,  painting, 
architecture,  and  the  arts  of  carving  and  of  engraving  on 
copper,  were  transplanted  into  the  Netherlands,  where, 
in  a  new  soil,  they  flourished  with  fresh  vigor.  The 
Flemish  school,  a  daughter  of  the  Italian,  soon  vied  with 
its  mother  for  the  prize ;  and,  in  common  with  it,  gave 
laws  to  the  whole  of  Europe  in  the  fine  arts.  The  manu- 
factures and  arts,  on  which  the  Netherlanders  principally 
founded  their  jjrosperity,  and  still  partly  base  it,  require 
no  particular  enumeration.  The  weaving  of  tapestry, 
oil  painting,  the  art  of  painting  on  glass,  even  pocket- 
watches  and  sun-dials  were,  as  Guicciardini  asserts,  origin- 
ally invented  in  the  Netherlands.  To  them  we  are 
indebted  for  the  improvement  of  the  compass,  the  points 
of  which  are  still  known  by  Flemish  names.  About  the 
year  1430  the  invention  of  typography  is  ascribed  to 
Laurence  Koster,  of  Haarlem  ;  and  whether  or  not  he  is 
entitled  to  this  honorable  distinction,  certain  it  is  that 
the  Dutch  were  among  the  first  to  engraft  this  useful  art 
among  them;  and  fate  ordained  that  a  century  later  it 
should  reward  its  country  with  liberty.  The  people  of 
the  Netherlands  united  with  the  most  fertile  genius  for 
inventions  a  happy  talent  for  improving  the  discoveries 
of  others;  there  are  probably  few  mechanical  arts  and 
manufactures  which  they  did  not  either  produce  or  at 
least  carry  to  a  higher  degree  of  perfection. 

THE  NETHERLANDS  UNDEK  CHAKLES  V. 

Up  to  this  time  these  provinces  had  formed  the  most 
enviable  state  in  Europe.  Not  one  of  the  Burgundian 
dukes  had  ventured  to  indulge  a  thought  of  overtui-ning 
the  constitution ;  it  had  remained  sacred  even  to  the 
daring  spirit  of  Charles  the  Bold,  while  he  was  preparing 
fetters  for  foreign  liberty.  All  these  princes  grew  up 
with  no  higher  hope  than  to  be  the  heads  of  a  republic, 


36  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

.ind  none  of  their  territories  afforded  them  experience  of 
a  higher  authority.  Besides,  these  princes  possessed 
nothing  but  what  the  NetherL'inds  gave  them  ;  no  armies 
but  those  which  the  nation  sent  into  the  field;  no  riches 
but  what  the  estates  granted  to  them.  Now  all  was 
changed.  The  Netherlands  liad  fallen  to  a  master  who 
had  at  his  command  other  instruments  and  other  resources, 
who  could  arm  against  them  a  foreign  power.* 

Charles  V.  was  an  absolute  monarch  m  his  Spanish 
dominions ;  in  the  Netherlands  he  was  no  more  than  the 
first  citizen.  In  the  southern  portion  of  his  empire  he 
might  have  learned  contempt  for  the  riglits  of  individuals  ; 
here  he  was  taught  to  respect  them.     The  more  he  there 

*  The  unnatural  union  of  two  such  different  nations  as  the  Belgians  and 
Spaniards  could  not  possibly  be  prosperous.  I  cannot  here  refrain  from 
quoting  the  comparison  which  Grotius,  in  energetic  language,  has  drawn 
between  the  two.  "  With  the  neighboring  nations,"  says  lie,  "  the  people  of 
the  Netherlands  could  easily  maintain  a  good  understanding,  for  they  were 
of  a  similar  origin  with  themselves,  and  had  grown  up  iu  the  same  manner. 
But  the  people  of  Spain  and  of  the  Netherlau<ls  differed  in  almost  every 
respect  from  one  another,  and  therefore,  when  they  were  brought  together, 
clashed  the  more  violently.  Both  had  lor  many  centuries  been  distinguished 
in  war,  only  the  latter  had,  in  luxurious  repose,  become  disused  to  arms, 
while  the  former  hail  been  inured  to  war  in  the  Italian  and  African  cam- 
paigns ;  the  desire  of  gain  made  the  Belgians  more  inclined  to  peace,  but 
not  less  sensitive  of  offence.  No  people  were  more  free  from  the  lust  of 
conquest,  but  none  defended  its  own  more  zealously.  Hence  the  numerous 
towns,  closely  pressed  together  in  a  confined  tract  of  country  ;  densely 
crowded  wth  a  foreign  and  native  population  ;  fortified  near  the  sea  and  the 
great  rivers.  Hence  for  eight  centuries  after  the  northern  immigration 
foreign  arms  could  not  prevail  against  them.  Spain,  on  the  contrary,  often 
changed  its  masters  ;  and  when  at  last  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Goths,  its 
character  and  its  manners  had  suffered  more  or  less  from  each  new  con- 
queror. The  people  thus  formed  at  last  out  of  these  several  admixtures  is 
described  as  patient  in  labor,  imperturbable  in  danger,  equally  eager  for 
riches  and  honor,  proud  of  itself  even  to  contempt  of  others,  devout  and 
grateful  to  strangers  for  any  act  of  kindness,  but  also  revengeful,  and  of  such 
ungovernable  passions  in  victory  as  so  regard  neither  conscience  nor  honor 
in  the  case  of  an  enemy.  All  this  is  foreign  to  the  character  of  the  Belgian, 
■who  is  astute  but  not  insidious,  who,  placed  midway  between  France  and 
Germany,  combines  in  moderation  the  faults  and  good  qualities  of  both.  He 
is  not  easily  to  be  imposed  upon,  nor  is  he  to  be  insulted  with  impunity.  In 
veneration  for  the  Deity,  too,  he  does  not  yield  to  the  Spaniard  ;  the  arms  of 
the  Northmen  could  not  make  him  apostatize  from  Christianity  when  he  had 
once  professed  it.  No  opinion  which  the  church  condemns  had,  up  to  this 
time,  empoisoned  the  purity  of  his  faith.  Nay,  his  pious  extravagance  went 
so  far  that  it  became  requisite  to  curb  by  laws  the  rapacity  of  his  clergy. 
In  both  people  loyalty  to  their  rulers  is  equally  innate,  with  this  dilference, 
that  the  Belgian  places  the  law  above  kings.  Of  all  the  Spaniards  the 
Castilians  require  to  be  governed  with  the  most  caution  ;  but  the  liberties 
which  they  arrogate  for  themselves  they  do  not  willingly  accord  to  others. 
Hence  the  difficult  task  to  their  common  ruler,  so  to  distribute  his  attention 
and  care  between  the  two  nations  that  neither  the  preference  shown  to  the 
Castilian  should  offend  the  Belgian,  nor  the  equal  treatment  of  the  Belgian 
affront  the  haughty  spirit  of  the  Castilian."  —  Grotii  Anual.  Belg.  L.  1.  4. 
5.  seq. 


REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  37 

tasted  the  pleasures  of  unlimited  power,  and  the  higher 
he  raised  his  opinion  of  his  own  greatness,  the  more  reluc- 
tant he  must  have  felt  to  descend  elsewhere  to  the  ordi- 
nary level  of  humanity,  and  to  tolerate  any  check  upon 
his  arbitrary  authority.  It  requires,  indeed,  no  ordinary 
degree  of  virtue  to  abstain  from  warring  against  the 
power  which  imposes  a  curb  on  our  most  cherished 
W'ishes. 

The  superior  power  of  Charles  awakened  at  the  same 
time  in  the  Netherlands  that  distrust  which  always  accorn- 
panies  inferiority.     Never  were   they  so  alive  to   their 
constitutional  rights,  never  so  jealous  of  the  royal  preroga- 
tive, or  more  observant  in  their  proceedings.     Under  his 
reign  we  see  the  most  violent   outbreaks  of  republican 
spirit,  and  the   pretensions   of  the   people  carried  to  an 
excess  which  nothing  but  the  increasing  encroachments 
of  the  royal  power  could  in  tlie  least  justify.     A  sover- 
eign will  always  regard  the  freedom  of  the  citizen  as  an 
alienated  fief,  which  he  is  bound  to  recover.  To  the  citizen 
the  authority  of  a   sovereign  is  a  torrent,  which,  by  its 
inundation,  threatens   to  sweep  away  his  rights.      The 
Belgians  sought  to  protect  themselves  against  the  ocean 
by  embankments,  and  against  their  princes  by  constitu- 
tional enactments.     The  whole  history  of  the  world  is  a 
perpetually  recurring   struggle  between  liberty  and  the 
lust  of  power  and  possession  ;  as  the  history  of  nature  is 
nothing   but  the  contest    of   the   elements  and   organic 
bodies  for  space.     The  Netherlands  soon  found  to  their 
cost  that  they  had  become  but  a  province  of  a  great  mon- 
archy.    So  long  as  their  former  masters  had  no  higher 
aim  than  to  promote  their   prosperity,  their   condition 
resembled  the  tranquil  happiness  of  a  secluded  family, 
whose  head  is  its  ruler.     Charles   V.   introduced  them 
upon  the  arena  of  the  political  world.     They  now  formed 
a  member  of  that  gigantic  body  which  the  ambition  of 
an  individual  employed  as  his  instrument.     They  ceased 
to  have  their  own  good  for  their  aim  ;  the  centre  of  their 
existence  was  transported  to  the  soul  of  their  ruler.     As 
his  whole  government  was  but  one  tissue  of  plans  and 
manoeuvres  to  advance  his  po-wer,  so  it  w^as,  above  all 
things,  necessary  that  he  should  be  completely  master  of 


38  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETILEIILANDS. 

the  various  limbs  of  his  mighty  empire  in  order  to  move 
them  effectually  and  suddenly.  It  was  impossible,  there- 
fore, for  him  to  embarrass  himself  with  the  tiresome 
mechanism  of  their  interior  political  organization,  or  to 
extend  to  their  peculiar  privileges  the  conscientious  respect 
which  their  republican  jealousy  demanded.  It  was  expe- 
dient for  hini  to  facilitate  the  exercise  of  their  powers  by 
concentration  and  unity.  The  tribunal  at  Malines  had 
been  under  his  predecessor  an  independent  court  of  judi- 
cature ;  he  subjected  its  decrees  to  the  revision  of  a  royal 
council,  whicli  he  established  in  Brussels,  and  which  was 
the  mere  organ  of  his  will.  He  introduced  foreigners 
into  the  most  vital  functions  of  their  constitution,  and 
confided  to  them  the  most  important  offices.  These 
men,  whose  only  support  was  the  royal  favor,  would  be 
but  bad  guardians  of  privileges  which,  moreover,  were 
little  known  to  them.  The  ever-increasing  expenses  of 
his  warlike  government  compelled  hitn  as  steadily  to 
augment  his  resources.  In  disregard  of  their  most 
sacred  privileges  he  imposed  new  and  strange  taxes  on 
the  provinces.  To  preserve  their  olden  consideration  the 
estates  were  forced  to  grant  what  he  had  been  so  modest 
as  not  to  extort ;  the  whole  history  of  the  government  of 
this  monarch  in  the  Netherlands  is  almost  one  continued 
list  of  imposts  demanded,  refused,  and  finally  accorded. 
Contrary  to  the  constitution,  he  introduced  foreign  troops 
into  their  territories,  directed  the  recruiting  of  his  armies 
in  the  provinces,  and  involved  them  in  wars,  which  could 
not  advance  even  if  they  did  not  injure  their  interest, 
and  to  which  they  had  not  given  their  consent.  He 
punished  the  offences  of  a  free  state  as  a  monarch ;  and 
the  terrible  chastisement  of  Ghent  announced  to  the 
other  provinces  the  great  change  which  their  constitution 
had  already  undergone. 

The  welfare  of  the  country  was  so  far  secured  as  was 
necessary  to  the  political  schemes  of  its  master;  the  in- 
telligent policy  of  Cliarles  would  certainly  not  violate 
the  salutary  regiment  of  the  body  whose  energies  he 
found  himself  necessitated  to  exert.  Fortunately,  the 
opposite  pursuits  of  selfish  ambition,  and  of  disinterested 
philanthropy,  often  bring  about  the  same  end ;  and  the 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETIIEELAXDS.  39 

well-being  of  a  state,  wliich  a  Marcus  Aurelius  might 
propose  to  himself  as  a  rational  object  of  pursuit,  is  oc- 
casionally promoted  by  an  Augustus  or  a  Louis, 

Charles  V.  was  perfectly  aware  that  commerce  was 
the  strength  of  the  nation,  and  that  the  foundation  of 
their  commerce  was  liberty.  He  spared  its  liberty 
because  he  needed  its  strength.  Of  greater  political 
Avisdom,  though  not  more  just  than  his  son,  he  adapted 
his  principles  to  the  exigencies  of  time  and  place,  and 
recalled  an  ordinance  in  Antwerp  and  in  Madrid  which 
he  would  under  other  circumstances  have  enforced  with 
all  the  terrors  of  his  power.  That  which  makes  the  reign 
of  Charles  V.  particularly  remarkable  in  regard  to  the 
Netherlands  is  the  great  religious  revolution  which  oc- 
cun-ed  under  it ;  and  which,  as  the  principal  cause  of  the 
subsequent  rebellion,  demands  a  somewhat  circumstantial 
notice.  This  it  was  "that  first  brought  arbitrary  power 
into  the  innermost  sanctuary  of  the  constitution ;  taught 
it  to  give  a  dreadful  specimen  of  its  might;  and,  in  a 
measure,  legalized  it,  while  it  placed  republican  spirit  on 
a  dangerous  eminence.  And  as  the  latter  sank  into 
anarchy  and  rebellion  monarchical  power  rose  to  the 
height  of  despotism. 

Nothing  is  more  natural  than  the  transition  from  civil 
liberty  to  religious  freedom.  Individuals,  as  well  as  com- 
munities, who,  favored  by  a  happy  political  constitution, 
have  become  acquainted  with  the  rights  of  man,  and  ac- 
customed to  examine,  if  not  also  to  create,  the  law  which 
is  to  govern  them  ;  whose  minds  have  been  enlightened 
by  activity,  and  feelings  exp'^.nded  by  the  enjoyments  of 
life ;  whose  natural  courage  has  been  exalted  by  internal 
security  and  prosperity ;  such  men  will  not  easily  sur- 
render themselves  to  the  blind  domination  of  a  dull  arbi- 
trary creed,  and  will  be  the  first  to  emancipate  themselves 
from  its  yoke.  Another  circumstance,  however,  must 
have  greatly  tended  to  diffuse  the  new  religion  in  these 
countries.  Italy,  it  might  be  objected,  the  seat  of  the 
greatest  intellectual  culture,  formerly  the  scene  of  the 
most  violent  political  factions,  where  a  burning  climate 
kindles  the  blood  with  the  wildest  passions  —  Italy,  among 
all  the  European  countries,  remained  the  freest  from  this 


40  KEVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

change.  But  to  a  romantic  people,  whom  a  warm  and 
lovely  sky,  a  luxurious,  ever  young  and  ever  smiling 
nature,  and  the  multifarious  witcheries  of  art,  rendered 
keenly  susceptible  of  sensuous  enjoyment,  that  form  of  re- 
ligion must  naturally  have  been  better  adapted,  which  by 
its  splendid  pomp  captivates  the  senses,  by  its  mysterious 
enigmas  oj^ens  an  unbounded  range  to  the  fancy;  and 
which,  through  the  most  picturesque  forms,  labors  to  in- 
sinuate important  doctrines  into  the  soul.  On  the  con- 
trary, to  a  people  whom  the  ordinary  employments  of 
civil  life  have  drawn  down  to  an  unpoetical  reality,  who 
live  more  in  plain  notions  than  in  images,  and  who  culti- 
vate their  common  sense  at  the  expense  of  their  imagina- 
tion—  to  such  a  people  that  creed  will  best  recommend 
itself  which  dreads  not  investigation,  which  lays  less  stress 
on  mysticism  than  on  morals,  and  which  is  rather  to  be 
understood  then  to  be  dwelt  upon  in  meditation.  In  few 
words,  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  will,  on  the  whole, 
be  found  more  adapted  to  a  nation  of  artists,  the  Prot- 
estant more  fitted  to  a  nation  of  merchants. 

On  this  supposition  the  new  doctrines  which  Luther 
diffused  in  Germany,  and  Calvin  in  Switzerland,  must 
have  found  a  congenial  soil  in  the  Netherlands.  The 
first  seeds  of  it  were  sown  in  the  Netherlands  by  the 
Protestant  merchants,  who  assembled  at  Amsterdam  and 
AntAverp.  The  German  and  Swiss  troops,  which  Charles 
introduced  into  these  countries,  and  the  crowd  of  French, 
German,  and  English  fugitives  who,  under  the  protection 
of  the  liberties  of  Flanders,  sought  to  escape  the  sword 
of  persecution  which  threatened  them  at  home,  promoted 
their  diffusion.  A  great  portion  of  the  Belgian  nobility 
studied  at  that  time  at  Geneva,  as  the  University  of 
Louvain  was  not  yet  in  repute,  and  that  of  Douai  not  yet 
founded.  The  new  tenets  piiblicly  taught  there  were 
transplanted  by  the  students  to  their  various  countries. 
In  an  isolated  people  these  first  germs  might  easily  have 
been  crushed ;  but  in  the  market-towns  of  Holland  and 
Brabant,  the  resort  of  so  many  different  nations,  their 
first  growth  would  escape  the  notice  of  government,  and 
be  accelerated  under  the  veil  of  obscurity.  A  difference 
in   opinion   might    easily   spring    up   and   gain    ground 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  41 

ainono-st  those  who  already  were  divided  in  national 
character,  in  manners,  customs,  and  laws.  Moreover,  in 
a  country  where  industry  was  the  most  lauded  virtue, 
mendicity  the  most  abhorred  vice,  a  slothful  body  of  men, 
like  that  of  the  monks,  must  have  been  an  object  of  long 
and  deep  aversion.  Hence,  the  new  religion,  which 
opposed  these  orders,  derived  an  immense  advantage 
from  having  the  popular  opinion  on  its  side.  Occasional 
pamplilets,  full  of  bitterness  and  satire,  to  which  the  newly- 
discovered  art  of  printing  secured  a  rapid  circulation, 
and  several  bands  of  strolling  orators,  called  Rederiker, 
who  at  that  time  made  the  circuit  of  the  provinces,  ridi- 
culing in  theatrical  representations  or  songs  the  abuses  of 
their  times,  contributed  not  a  little  to  diminish  respect 
for  the  Romish  Church,  and  to  prepare  the  people  for  the 
reception  of  the  new  dogmas. 

The  first  conquests  of  this  doctrine  were  astonishingly 
rapid.  The  nuniber  of  those  who  in  a  short  time  avowed 
themselves  its  adherents,  especially  in  the  northern  prov- 
inces, was  prodigious;  but  among  these  the  foreigners 
far  oatnumbered  the  natives.  Charles  V.,  who,  in  this 
hostile  array  of  I'eligious  tenets,  had  taken  the  side  which 
a  despot  could  not  fail  to  take,  opposed  to  the  increasing 
torrent  of  innovation  the  most  effectual  remedies.  Un- 
happil}^  for  the  I'eformed  religion  political  justice  was  on 
the  side  of  its  persecutor.  The  dam  which,  for  so  many 
centuries,  had  repelled  human  understanding  from  truth 
was  too  suddenly  torn  away  for  the  outbreaking  torrent 
not  to  overflow  its  appointed  channel.  The  reviving 
spirit  of  liberty  and  of  inquiry,  which  ought  to  have  re- 
mained within  the  limits  of  religious  questions,  began  also 
to  examine  into  the  rights  of  kings.  While  in  the  com- 
mencement  iron  fetters  were  justly  broken  off,  a  desire 
was  eventually  shown  to  rend  asunder  the  most  legitimate 
and  most  indispensable  of  ties.  Even  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, which  were  now  circulated  everywhere,  while  they 
imparted  light  and  nurture  to  the  sincere  inquirer  after 
truth,  were  the  source  also  whence  an  eccentric  fanaticism 
contrived  to  extort  the  virulent  poison.  The  good  cause 
had  been  compelled  to  choose  the  evil  road  of  rebellion, 
and  the  result  was  what  in  such  cases  it  ever  will  be  so 


42  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHEIILANDS. 

long  as  men  remain  men.  The  bad  cause,  too,  which  had 
nothing  in  common  with  the  good  but  the  employment 
of  illegal  means,  emboldened  by  this  slight  point  of  con- 
nection, appeared  in  the  same  company,  and  was  mistaken 
for  it.  Luther  had  written  against  the  invocation  of 
saints ;  every  audacious  varlet  who  broke  into  the 
churches  and  cloisters,  and  plundered  the  altars,  called 
himself  Lutheran.  Faction,  rapine,  fanaticism,  licentious- 
ness robed  themselves  in  his  colors ;  the  most  enormous 
offenders,  when  brought  before  the  judges,  avowed  them- 
selves his  followers.  The  Reformation  had  drawn  down 
the  Roman  prelate  to  a  level  with  fallible  humanity ;  an 
insane  band,  stimulated  by  hunger  and  want,  sought  to 
annihilate  all  distinction  of  ranks.  It  was  natural  that  a 
doctrine,  which  to  the  state  showed  itself  only  in  its  most 
unfavorable  aspect,  should  not  have  been  able  to  reconcile 
a  monarch  who  had  already  so  many  reasons  to  extirpate 
it ;  and  it  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  he  employed 
against  it  the  arms  it  had  itself  forced  upon  him. 

Charles  must  already  have  looked  upon  himself  as  abso- 
lute in  the  Netherlands  since  he  did  not  think  it  necessary 
to  extend  to  these  countries  the  religious  liberty  which 
he  had  accorded  to  Germany.  While,  compelled  by  the 
effectual  resistance  of  the  German  princes,  he  assured  to 
the  former  country  a  free  exercise  of  the  new  religion,  in 
the  latter  he  published  the  most  cruel  edicts  for  its 
repression.  By  these  the  reading  of  the  Evangelists  and 
Apostles ;  all  open  or  secret  meetings  to  which  religion 
gave  its  name  in  ever  so  slight  a  degree  ;  all  conversations 
on  the  subject,  at  home  or  at  the  table,  were  forbidden 
under  severe  penalties.  In  every  province  special  courts 
of  judicature  were  established  to  watch  over  the  execution 
of  the  edicts.  Whoever  held  these  erroneous  opinions  was 
to  forfeit  his  office  without  regard  to  his  rank.  Whoever 
should  be  convicted  of  diffusing  heretical  doctrines,  or 
even  of  simply  attending  the  secret  meetings  of  the 
Reformers,  was  to  be  condemned  to  death,  and  if  a  male, 
to  be  executed  by  the  sword,  if  a  female,  buried  alive. 
Backsliding  heretics  were  to  be  committed  to  the  flames. 
Not  even  the  recantation  of  the  offender  could  annul 
these  appalling  sentences.     Wlioever  abjured  his  errors 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  43 

gained  notliing  by  his  apostacy  but  at  farthest  a  milder 
kind  of  death. 

The  fiefs  of  tlie  condemned  were  also  confiscated,  con- 
trary to  the  privileges  of  the  nation,  which  permitted  the 
heir  to  redeem  them  for  a  trifling  fine;  and  in  defiance  of 
an  express  and  valuable  privilege  of  the  citizens  of  Hol- 
land, by  which  they  were  not  to  be  tried  out  of  their 
province,  culprits  were  conveyed  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  native  judicature,  and  condemned  by  foreign  tribu- 
nals. Thus  did  religion  guide  the  hand  of  despotism  to 
attack  with  its  sacred  weapon,  and  without  danger  or 
opposition,  the  liberties  which  were  inviolable  to  the  sec- 
ular arm. 

Charles  V.,  emboldened  by  the  fortunate  progress  of 
his  arms  in  Germany,  thought  that  he  might  now  venture 
on  everything,  and  seriously  meditated  the  introduction 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  in  the  Netherlands.  But  the 
terror  of  its  very  name  alone  reduced  commerce  in  Ant- 
werp to  a  standstill.  The  principal  foreign  merchants 
prepared  to  quit  the  city.  All  buying  and  selling  ceased, 
the  value  of  houses  fell,  the  employment  of  artisans 
stopi^ed.  Money  disappeared  from  the  hands  of  the  cit- 
izen. The  ruin  of  that  flourishing  commercial  city  was 
inevitable  had  not  Charles  V.  listened  to  the  representa- 
tions of  the  Duchess  of  Parma,  and  abandoned  this  per- 
ilous resolve.  The  tribunal,  therefore,  was  ordered  not 
to  interfere  with  the  foreign  merchants,  and  the  title  of 
Inquisitor  was  changed  unto  the  milder  appellation  of 
Spiritual  Judge.  But  in  the  other  provinces  that  tribunal 
proceeded  to  rage  with  the  inhuman  despotism  which 
has  ever  been  peculiar  to  it.  It  has  been  computed  that 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  V.  fifty  thousand  persons 
perished  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner  for  religion 
alone. 

When  we  glance  at  the  violent  proceedings  of  this 
monarch  we  are  quite  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  what  it 
was  that  kept  the  rebellion  within  bounds  during  his 
reign,  which  broke  out  with  so  much  violence  under  his 
successor.  A  closer  investigation  will  clear  up  this 
seeming  anomaly.  Charles's  dreaded  supremacy  in  Eu- 
rope had  raised  the  commerce  of  the  Netherlands  to  a 


44  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

beiglit  which  it  had  never  before  attained.  The  majesty 
of  his  name  opened  all  harbors,  cleared  all  seas  for  their 
vessels,  and  obtained  for  them  the  most  favorable  com- 
mercial treaties  with  foreign  powers.  Through  him,  in 
particular,  they  destroyed  the  dominion  of  the  Hanse 
towns  in  the  Baltic.  Through  him,  also,  the  New  World, 
Spain,  Italy,  Germany,  which  now  shared  with  them  a 
common  ruler,  were,  in  a  measure,  to  be  considered  as 
provinces  of  their  own  country,  and  opened  new  chan- 
nels for  their  commerce.  He  had,  moreover,  united  the 
remaining  six  provinces  with  the  hereditary  states  of 
Burgundy,  and  thus  given  to  them  an  extent  and  political 
importance  which  placed  them  by  the  side  of  the  first 
kingdoms  of  Europe.* 

By  all  this  he  flattered  the  national  pride  of  this  people. 
3Ioreover,  by  the  incorporation  of  Gueldres,  Utrecht, 
Friesland,  and  Groningen  with  these  provinces,  he  put  an 
end  to  the  private  wars  which  had  so  long  disturbed  their 
commerce ;  an  unbroken  internal  peace  now  allowed 
them  to  enjoy  the  full  fruits  of  their  industry.  Charles 
was  therefore  a  benefactor  of  this  people.  At  the  same 
time,  the  splendor  of  his  victories  dazzled  their  eyes;  the 
glory  of  their  sovereign,  which  was  reflected  upon  them 
also,  had  bribed  their  republican  vigilance;  while  the 
awe-inspiring  halo  of  invincibility  which  encircled  the 
conqueror  of  Germany,  France,  Italy,  and  Africa  terri- 
fied the  factious.  And  then,  who  knows  not  on  how 
much  may  venture  the  man,  be  he  a  private  individual  or 
a  prince,  who  has  succeeded  in  enchaining  the  admiration 
of  his  fellow-creatures !  His  repeated  personal  visits  to 
these  lands,  which  he,  according  to  his  own  confession, 
visited  as  often  as  ten  different  times,  kept  the  disaffected 

*  He  had,  too,  at  one  time  the  intention  of  raising  it  to  a  kingdom  ;  but 
the  essential  points  of  diiference  between  the  provinces,  whicli  extended  from 
constitution  and  manners  to  measures  and  weijihts,  soon  made  him  abandon 
this  design.  More  important  was  the  service  wliioh  he  designed  tliem  in  the 
Burgundian  treaty,  which  settled  its  relation  to  the  German  empire.  Accord- 
ing to  this  treaty  the  seventeen  provinces  were  to  contribute  to  the  common 
wants  of  the  German  empire  twice  as  much  as  an  electoral  prince  ;  in  case 
of  a  Turkish  war  three  times  as  much  :  in  return  for  which,  however,  they 
were  to  enioy  the  powerful  protection  of  this  empire,  and  not  to  be  injured 
in  any  of  tlieir  various  privileges.  The  revolution,  which  under  Charles'  son 
altered  the  political  constitution  of  the  provinces,  again  annulled  this  com- 
pact, which,  on  account  of  the  trifling  advantage  that  it  conferred,  deserves 
no  further  notice. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHEIILAXDS.  45 

within  bounds;  the  constant  exercise  of  severe  and 
prom]it  justice  maintained  the  awe  of  the  royal  power. 
Finally,  Charles  was  born  in  the  Netherlands,  and  loved 
the  nation  in  whose  lap  he  had  grown  up.  Their  man- 
ners pleased  him,  the  simplicity  of  their  character  and 
social  intercourse  formed  for  him  a  pleasing  recreation 
from  the  severe  Spanish  gravity.  He  spoke  their  lan- 
o-uage,  and  followed  their  customs  in  his  private  life. 
The'' burdensome  ceremonies  which  form  the  unnatural 
barriers  between  king  and  people  were  banished  from 
Brussels.  No  jealous  foreigner  debarred  natives  from 
access  to  their  prince;  their  way  to  him  was  through 
their  own  countrymen,  to  whom  he  entrusted  his  person. 
He  spoke  much  and  courteously  with  them ;  his  deport- 
ment was  engaging,  his  discourse  obliging.  These  simple 
artifices  won  for  him  their  love,  and  while  his  armies  trod 
down  tlieir  cornfields,  while  his  rapacious  imposts  dimin- 
ished their  property,  while  his  governors  oppressed,  his 
executioners  slaughtered,  he  secured  their  hearts  by  a 
friendly  demeanor. 

Gladly  would  Charles  have  seen  this  affection  of  the 
nation  for  himself  descend  upon  his  son.  On  this  ac- 
count he  sent  for  him  in  his  youth  from  Spain,  and 
sliowed  him  in  Brussels  to  his  future  subjects.  On  the 
solemn  day  of  his  abdication  he  recommended  to  him 
these  lands  as  the  richest  jewel  in  his  crown,  and  earn- 
estly exhorted  him  to  respect  their  laws  and  privileges. 

Philip  II.  was  in  all  the  direct  opposite  of  his  father. 
As  ambitious  as  Charles,  but  with  less  knowledge  of  men 
and  of  the  rights  of  man,  he  had  formed  to  himself  a 
notion  of  royal  authority  which  regarded  men  as  simply 
the  servile  instruments  of  despotic  will,  and  was  out- 
raged by  every  symptom  of  liberty.  Born  in  Spain,  and 
educated  under  the  iron  discipline  of  the  monks,  he 
demanded  of  others  the  same  gloomy  formality  and  re- 
serve as  marked  his  own  character.  The  cheerful  merri- 
ment of  his  Flemish  subjects  was  as  uncongenial  to  his 
disposition  and  temper  as  their  privileges  were  offensive 
to  his  imperious  will.  He  spoke  no  other  language  but 
the  Spanish,  endured  none  but  Spaniards  about  his  per- 
son, and  obstinately  adhered  to  all  their  customs.     In 


46  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

vain  did  the  loyal  ingenuity  of  the  Flemish  towns 
through  which  he  passed  vie  with  each  other  in  sol- 
emnizing his  arrival  with  costly  festivities,*  Philip's  eye 
remained  dark ;  all  the  profusion  of  magnificence,  all  the 
loud  and  hearty  effusions  of  the  sincerest  joy  could  not 
win  from  him  one  approving  smile. 

Charles  entirely  missed  his  aim  by  presenting  his  son 
to  the  Flemings.  They  might  eventually  have  endured 
his  yoke  with  less  impatience  if  he  had  never  set  his  foot 
in  their  land.  But  his  look  forewarned  them  what  they 
had  to  expect;  his  entry  into  Brussels  lost  him  all  hearts. 
The  Empei'or's  gracious  affability  with  his  people  only 
served  to  throw  a  darker  shade  on  the  haughty  gravity 
of  his  son.  They  read  in  his  countenance  the  destruc- 
tive purpose  against  their  liberties  which,  even  then,  he 
ah-eady  revolved  in  his  breast.  Forewarned  to  find  in 
him  a  tyrant  they  Avere  forearmed  to  resist  him. 

The  throne  of  the  Netherlands  was  the  first  which 
Charles  V.  abdicated.  Before  a  solemn  convention  in 
Brussels  he  absolved  the  States-General  of  their  oath, 
and  transferred  their  allegiance  to  King  Philip,  his  son. 
"If  my  death,"  addressing  the  latter,  as  he  concluded, 
"  had  placed  you  in  possession  of  these  countries,  even  in 
that  case  so  valuable  a  bequest  would  have  given  me 
great  claims  on  your  gi-atitude.  But  now  that  of  my 
free  will  I  transfer  them  to  you,  now  that  I  die  in  order 
to  hasten  your  enjoyment  of  them,  I  only  require  of  you 
to  pay  to  the  people  the  increased  obligation  which  the 
voluntary  surrender  of  my  dignity  lays  upon  you.  Other 
princes  esteem  it  a  peculiar  felicity  to  bequeath  to  their 
children  the  croMm  which  death  is  already  ravishing  from 
them.  This  happiness  I  am  anxious  to  enjoy  during  my 
life.  I  wish  to  be  a  spectator  of  your  reign.  _  Few  will 
follow  my  example,  as  few  have  preceded  nie  in  it.  But 
this  my  deed  will  be  praised  if  your  future  life  should 
justify  my  expectations,  if  you  continue  to  be  guided  by 
that  wisdom  which  you  have  hitherto  evinced,  if  you 
remain  inviolably  attached  to  the  pure  faith  which  is  the 
main  pillar  of  your  throne.     One  thing  more  I  have  to 

*  The  town  of  Antwerp  alone  expended  on  an  occasion  of  this  kind 
two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  gold  florins. 


REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  47 

add :  may  Heaven  grant  you  also  a  son,  to  whom  you 
may  transmit  your  jjower  by  choice,  and  not  by 
necessity." 

After  the  Emperor  had  concluded  his  address  Philip 
kneeled  down  before  him,  kissed  his  hand,  and  received 
his  paternal  blessing.  His  eyes  for  the  last  time  were 
moistened  with  a  tear.  All  present  wept.  It  was  an 
hour  never  to  be  forgotten. 

This  affecting  farce  was  soon  followed  by  another. 
Philip  received  the  homage  of  the  assembled  states.  He 
took  the  oath  administered  in  the  following  words  :  "  I, 
Pliilip,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Prince  of  Spain,  of  the  two 
Sicilies,  etc.,  do  vow  and  swear  that  I  will  be  a  good  and 
just  lord  in  these  countries,  counties,  and  duchies,  etc. ; 
that  I  will  well  and  truly  hold,  and  cause  to  be  held,  the 
privileges  and  liberties  of  all  the  nobles,  towns,  commons, 
and  subjects  which  have  been  conferred  upon  them  by  my 
predecessors,  and  also  the  customs,  usages  and  rights  which 
they  now  have  and  enjoy,  jointly  and  severally,  and,  niore- 
over,  that  I  will  do  all  that  by  law  and  right  pertains  to 
a  good  and  just  prince  and  lord,  so  help  me  God  and  all 
His  Saints." 

The  alarm  which  the  arbitrary  government  of  the 
Etnperor  had  inspired,  and  the  distrust  of  his  son,  are 
already  visible  in  the  formula  of  this  oath,  which  was 
drawn  up  in  far  more  guarded  and  explicit  terms  than 
that  which  had  been  administered  to  Charles  V.  himself 
and  all  the  Dukes  in  Burgundy.  Philip,  for  instance,  was 
compelled  to  swear  to  the  maintenance  of  their  customs 
and  usages,  what  before  his  time  had  never  been  required. 
In  the  oath  which  the  states  took  to  him  no  other  obedi- 
ence was  promised  than  such  as  should  be  consistent 
with  the  privileges  of  the  country.  His  officers  then 
were  only  to  reckon  on  submission  and  support  so  long  as 
they  legally  discharged  the  duties  entrusted  to  them. 
Lastly,  in  this  oath  of  allegiance,  Philip  is  simply  styled 
the  natural,  the  hereditary  prince,  and  not,  as  the  Emperor 
had  desired,  sovereign  or  lord  ;  proof  enough  hoM^  little 
confidence  was  placed  in  the  justice  and  liberality  of  the 
new  sovereign. 


48  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 


PHILIP    II.,    EULEB    OP    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

Philip  II.  received  the  lordship  of  the  Netherlands  in 
the  brightest  period  of  their  prosperity.  He  was  the  first 
of  their  princes  who  united  them  all  under  his  authority. 
They  now  consisted  of  seventeen  j^rovinces ;  the  duchies 
of  Brabant,  Limburg,  Luxembourg,  and  Gueldres,  the 
seven  counties  of  Artois,  Hainault,  Flanders,  Namur, 
Ziitphen,  Holland,  and  Zealand,  the  margravate  of  Ant- 
werp, and  the  five  lordships  of  Friesland,  Mechlin 
(Malines),  Utrecht,  Overyssel,  and  Groningen,  which, 
collectively,  formed  a  great  and  powerful  state  able  to 
contend  with  monarchies.  Higher  than  it  then  stood 
their  commerce  could  not  rise.  The  sources  of  their 
wealth  were  above  the  earth's  surface,  but  they  were  more 
valuable  and  inexhaustible  and  richer  than  all  the  mines 
in  America.  These  seventeen  provinces  which,  taken 
together,  scarcely  comprised  the  fifth  part  of  Italy,  and 
do  not  extend  beyond  three  hundred  Flemish  miles, 
yielded  an  annual  revenue  to  their  lord,  not  much  inferior 
to  that  which  Britain  formerly  paid  to  its  kings  before 
the  latter  had  annexed  so  many  of  the  ecclesiastical 
domains  to  their  crown.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  cities, 
alive  with  industry  and  pleasure,  many  of  them  fortified 
by  their  natural  position  and  secure  without  bulwarks  or 
walls  ;  six  thousand  three  hundred  market  towns  of  a  larger 
size ;  smaller  villages,  farms,  and  castles  innumerable,  im- 
parted to  this  territory  the  aspect  of  one  unbroken  flourish- 
ing landscape.  The  nation  had  now  reached  the  meridian 
of  its  splendor ;  industry  and  abundance  had  exalted  the 
genius  of  the  citizen,  enlightened  his  ideas,  ennobled  his 
affections  ;  every  flower  of  the  intellect  had  opened  with 
the  flourishing  condition  of  the  country.  A  happy  tem- 
perament under  a  severe  climate  cooled  the  ardor  of  their 
blood,  and  moderated  the  rage  of  their  passions ;  equanim- 
ity, moderation,  and  enduring  patience,  the  gifts  of  a 
northern  clime ;  integrity,  justice,  and  faith,  the  necessary 
virtues  of  their  profession  ;  and  the  delightful  fruits  of 
liberty,  truth,  benevolence,  and  a  patriotic  pride  were 
blended  in  their  character,  with  a  slight  admixture  of 
human  frailties.     No  people  on  earth  was  more  easily 


EE^'OLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  49 

governed  by  a  prudent  prince,  and  none  with  more 
difficulty  by  a  charlatan  or  a  tyrant.  Nowhere  was  the 
popular  voice  so  infallible  a  test  of  good  government  as 
here.  True  statesmanship  could  be  tried  in  no  nobler 
school,  and  a  sickly  artificial  policy  had  none  worse  to 
fear. 

A  state  constituted  like  this  could  act  and  endure  with 
gigantic  energy  whenever  pressing  emergencies  called, 
forth  its  powers  and  a  skilful  and  provident  administra- 
tion elicited  its  resources.  Charles  V.  bequeathed  to  his 
successor  an  authority  in  these  provinces  little  inferior  to 
that  of  a  limited  monarchy.  The  prerogative  of  the  crown 
had  gained  a  visible  ascendancy  over  the  republican  spirit, 
and  that  complicated  machine  could  now  be  set  in  motion, 
almost  as  certainly  and  rapidly  as  the  most  absolutely 
governed  nation.  The  numerous  nobility,  formerly  so 
powerful,  cheerfully  accompanied  their  sovereign  in  his 
wars,  or,  on  the  civil  changes  of  the  state,  courted  the 
approving  smile  of  royality.  The  crafty  policy  of  the 
crown  had  created  a  new  and  imaginary  good,  of  which 
it  was  the  exclusive  dispenser.  New  passions  and  new 
ideas  of  happiness  supplanted  at  last  the  rude  simplicity 
of  republican  virtue.  Pride  gave  place  to  vanity,  true 
liberty  to  titles  of  honor,  a  needy  independence  to  a  lux- 
urious servitude.  To  oppress  or  to  plunder  their  native 
land  as  the  absolute  satraps  of  an  absolute  lord  was  a 
more  powerful  allurement  for  the  avarice  and  ambition 
of  the  great,  than  in  the  general  assembly  of  the  state  to 
share  with  the  monarch  a  hundredth  part  of  the  supreme 
power.  A  large  portion,  moreover,  of  the  nobility  were 
deeply  sunk  in  poverty  and  debt.  Charles  V.  had  crippled 
all  the  most  dangerous  vassals  of  the  crown  by  expensive 
embassies  to  foreign  courts,  under  the  specious  pretext  of 
honorary  distinctions.  Thus,  William  of  Orange  was 
despatched  to  Germany  with  the  imperial  crown,  and 
Count  Egmont  to  conclude  the  marriage  contract  between 
Philip  and  Queen  Mary.  Both  also  afterwards  accom- 
panied the  Duke  of  Alva  to  France  to  negotiate  the  peace 
between  the  two  crowns,  and  the  new  alliance  of  their 
sovereign  with  Madame  Elizabeth.  The  expenses  of 
these  journeys   amounted   to    three   hundred   thousand 


50  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

florins,  towards  which  the  king  did  not  contribute  a 
single  penny.  When  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  appointed 
generalissimo  in  the  place  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  he  was 
obliged  to  defray  all  the  necessary  expenses  of  his  office. 
When  foreign  ambassadors  or  princes  came  to  Brussels  it 
was  made  incumbent  on  the  nobles  to  maintain  the  honor 
of  their  king,  who  himself  always  dined  alone,  and  never 
kept  open  table.  Spanish  policy  had  devised  a  still  more 
ingenious  contrivance  gradually  to  impoverish  the  richest 
families  of  the  land.  Every  year  one  of  the  Castilian 
nobles  made  his  appearance  in  Brussels,  where  he  dis- 
played a  lavish  magnificence.  In  Brussels  it  was  accounted 
an  indelible  disgrace  to  be  distanced  by  a  stranger  in  such 
munificence.  All  vied  to  surpass  him,  and  exhausted 
their  fortunes  in  this  costly  emulation,  while  the  Spaniard 
made  a  timely  retreat  to  his  native  country,  and  by  the 
frugality  of  four  years  repaired  the  extravagance  of  one 
year.  It  was  the  foible  of  the  Netherlandish  nobility  to 
contest  with  every  stranger  the  credit  of  superior  wealth, 
and  of  this  Aveakness  the  government  studiously  availed 
itself.  Certainly  these  arts  did  not  in  the  sequel  j^ro- 
duce  the  exact  result  that  had  been  calculated  on;  for 
these  pecuniary  burdens  only  made  the  nobility  the  more 
disposed  for  innovation,  since  he  who  has  lost  all  can  only 
be  a  gainer  in  the  general  ruin. 

The  Roman  Church  had  ever  been  a  main  support  of 
the  royal  power,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  it  should  be 
so.  Its  golden  time  was  the  bondage  of  the  human  intel- 
lect, and,  like  royalty,  it  had  gained  by  the  ignorance  and 
Aveakness  of  men.  Civil  oppression  made  religion  more 
necessary  and  more  dear ;  submission  to  tyrannical  power 
prepares  the  mind  for  a  blind,  convenient  faith,  and  the 
hierarchy  repaid  Avith  usury  the  services  of  despotism.  In 
the  provinces  the  bishops  and  prelates  were  zealous  sup- 
porters of  royalty,  and  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  the  Avelfare 
of  the  citizen  to  the  temporal  advancement  of  the  church 
and  the  political  interests  of  the  sovereign. 

Numerous  and  brave  garrisons  also  held  the  cities  in 
awe,  which  Avere  at  the  same  time  divided  by  religious 
squabbles  and  factions,  and  conseqiientiy  deprived  of  their 
strongest  support  —  union  among  themselves.    How  little. 


REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  51 

therefore,  did  it  require  to  insure  this  preponderance  of 
Philip's  power,  and  how  fatal  must  have  been  the  folly 
by  which  it  was  lost. 

But  Philip's  authority  in  these  provinces,  however  great, 
did  not  surpass  the  influence  which  the  Spanish  monarchy 
at  that  time  enjoyed  throughout  Europe.  No  state  ven- 
tured to  enter  the  arena  of  contest  with  it.  France,  its 
most  dangerous  neighbor,  weakened  by  a  destructive  wai", 
and  still  more  by  internal  factions,  which  boldly  raised 
their  heads  during  the  feeble  government  of  a  child,  was 
advancing  rapidly  to  that  unhappy  condition  which,  for 
nearly  half  a  century,  made  it  a  theatre  of  the  most  enor- 
mous crimes  and  the  most  fearful  calamities.  In  England 
Elizabeth  could  with  difficulty  protect  her  still  tottering 
throne  against  the  furious  storms  of  faction,  and  her  new 
church  establishment  against  the  insidious  arts  of  the 
Romanists.  That  country  still  awaited  her  mighty  call 
before  it  could  emerge  from  a  humble  obscurity,  and  had 
not  yet  been  awakened  by  the  faulty  policy  of  her  rival 
to  that  vigor  and  energy  with  Avhich  it  finally  overthrew 
him.  The  imperial  family  of  Germany  was  united  with 
that  of  Spain  by  the  double  ties  of  blood  and  political 
interest;  and  the  victorious  progress  of  Soliman  drew  its 
attention  more  to  the  east  than  to  the  west  of  Europe. 
Gratitude  and  fear  secured  to  Philip  the  Italian  princes, 
and  his  creatures  ruled  the  Conclave.  The  monarchies 
of  the  iSTorth  still  lay  in  barbarous  darkness  and  obscurity, 
or  only  just  began  to  acquire  form  and  strength,  and  were 
as  yet  unrecognized  in  the  political  system  of  Europe. 
The  most  skilful  generals,  numerous  armies  accustomed 
to  victory,  a  formidable  marine,  and  the  golden  tribute 
from  the  West  Indies,  which  noAv  first  began  to  come  in 
regularly  and  certainly  —  what  terrible  instruments  were 
these  in  the  firm  and  steady  hand  of  a  talented  prince  ! 
Under  such  auspicious  stars  did  King  Philip  commence 
his  reign. 

Before  we  see  him  act  we  must  first  look  hastily  into 
the  deep  recesses  of  his  soul,  and  we  shall  there  "find  a 
key  to  his  political  life.  Joy  and  benevolence  Avere  wholly 
wanting  in  the  composition  of  his  character.  His  temper- 
ament, and   the   gloomy   years   of  his   early  childhood, 


52  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHEllLANDS. 

denied  him  the  former;  the  latter  could  not  be  imparted 
to  him  by  men  who  had  renounced  the  sweetest  and  most 
powerful  of  the  social  ties.     Two  ideas,  his  own  self  and 
what  was  above  that  self,  engrossed  liis  narrow  and  con- 
tracted mind.     Egotism  and  religion  were  the  contents 
and  the  title-page  of  the  history  of  his  whole  life.    He  was 
a  king  and  a  Christian,  and  was  bad  in  both  characters ; 
he  never  was  a  man  among  men,  because  he  never  con- 
descended but  only  ascended.     His  belief  was  dark  and 
cruel ;  for  his  divinity  was  a  being  of  terror,  from  whom 
he  had  nothing  to  hope  but  everything  to  fear.     To  the 
ordinary  man  the  divinity  appears   as  a  comforter,  as  a 
Saviour ;   before  his  mind  it  was  set  up  as  an  image  of 
fear,  a  painful,  humiliating  check  to  his  human  omnipo- 
tence.    His  veneration  for  this   being  was  so  much  the 
more  profound  and  deeply  rooted  the  less  it  extended  to 
other  objects.    He  trembled  servilely  before  God  because 
God  was  the  only  being  before  whom  he  had  to  tremble. 
Charles  V.  was  zealous  for  religion  because  religion  pro- 
moted his  objects.     Philip  was  so  because  he  had  real 
faith  in  it.     The  foi-mer  let  loose  the  fire  and  the  sword 
upon  thousands  for  the  sake  of  a  dogma,  while  he  himself, 
in  the  person  of  the   pope,  his  captive,  derided  the  very 
doctrine   for  which  he   had    sacrihced    so   much  human 
blood.    It  was  only  with  repugnance  and  scruples  of  con- 
science that  Philip  resolved  on  the  most  just  war  against 
the  pope,  and  resigned  all  the  fruits  of  his  victory  as  a 
penitent  malefactor  surrenders  his  booty.     The  Emperor 
was  cruel  from  calculation,  his  son  from  impulse.     The 
first  possessed  a  strong  and   enlightened  spirit,  and  was, 
perhaps,  so  much  the  worse  as  a  man ;  the  second  was 
narrow-minded  and  weak,  but  the  more  upright. 

Both,  however,  as  it  appears  to  me,  might  have  been 
better  men  than  they  actually  were,  and  still,  on  the 
whole,  have  acted  on  the  very  same  principles.  What  we 
lay  to  the  charge  of  personal'character  of  an  individual  is 
very  often  the  infirmity,  the  necessary  imperfection  of 
universal  human  nature.  A  monarchy  so  great  and  so 
powerful  was  too  great  a  trial  for  human  pride,  and  too 
mighty  a  charge  for  human  power.  To  combine  universal 
happiness  with  the  highest  liberty  of  the  individual  is  the 


REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  53 

sole  prerogative  of  infinite  intelligence,  which  diffuses 
it:^elf  omnipresently  over  all.  But  what  resource  has  man 
when  placed  in  the  position  of  omnipotence?  Man  can 
only  aid  his  circumscribed  powers  by  classification  ;  like 
the  naturalist,  he  establishes  certain  marks  and  rules  by 
wliich  to  facilitate  his  own  feeble  survey  of  the  whole,  to 
which  all  individualities  must  conform.  All  this  is  ac- 
complished for  him  by  religion.  She  finds  hope  and  fear 
planted  in  every  human  breast ;  by  making  herself  mis- 
tress of  these  emotions,  and  directing  their  affections  to  a 
single  object,  she  virtually  transforms  millions  of  inde- 
pendent beings  into  one  uniform  abstract.  The  endless 
diversity  of  the  human  will  no  longer  embarrasses  its 
ruler — now  there  exists  one  universal  good,  one  universal 
evil,  which  he  can  bring  forward  or  withdraw  at  pleasure, 
and  which  works  in  unison  with  himself  even  when  ab- 
sent. Now  a  boundary  is  established  before  which  liberty 
must  halt;  a  venerable,  hallowed  line,  towards  which  all 
the  various  confiicting  inclinations  of  the  will  must  finally 
converge.  The  common  aim  of  despotism  and  of  priest- 
craft is  uniformity,  and  uniformity  is  a  necessary  expe- 
dient of  human  poverty  and  imperfection.  Philip  became 
a  greater  despot  than  his  father  because  his  mind  Avas 
more  contracted,  or,  in  other  words,  he  was  forced  to 
adhere  the  more  scrupulously  to  general  rules  the  less 
capable  he  was  of  descending  to  special  and  individual 
exceptions.  What  conclusion  could  we  draw  from  these 
principles  but  that  Pliilip  II.  could  not  possibly  have  any 
higher  object  of  his  solicitude  than  uniformity,  both  in 
religion  and  in  laws,  because  without  these  he  could  not 
reign  ? 

And  yet  he  would  have  shown  more  mildness  and  for- 
bearance in  his  government  if  he  had  entered  upon  it 
earlier.  In  the  judgment  Avhich  is  usually  formed  of  this 
prince  one  circumstance  does  not  appear  to  be  sufficiently 
considered  in  the  history  of  his  mind  and  heart,  which, 
however,  in  all  fairness,  ought  to  be  duly  weighed.  Philip 
counted  nearly  thirty  years  when  he  ascended  the  Spanish 
throne,  and  the  early  maturity  of  his  understanding  had 
anticipated  the  period  of  his  majoi-ity.  A  mind  like  his, 
conscious  of  its  powei-s,  and  only  too  early  acquainted 


54  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHEELANDS. 

with  his  high  expectations,  could  not  brook  the  yoke  of 
childish  subjection  in  which  he  stood;  the  superior  genius 
of  the  father,  and  the  absohite  authority  of  the  autocrat, 
must  have  weighed  heavily  on  the  self-satisfied  pride  of 
such  a  son.  The  share  which  the  former  allowed  him  in  the 
government  of  the  empire  was  just  important  enough  to 
disengage  his  mind  from  petty  passions  and  to  confirm  the 
austere  gravity  of  his  character,  but  also  meagre  enough 
to  kindle  a  fiercer  longing  for  unlimited  power.  When 
he  actually  became  possessed  of  uncontrolled  authority  it 
had  lost  the  charm  of  novelty.  The  sweet  intoxication 
of  a  young  monarch  in  the  sudden  and  early  posses- 
sion of  supreme  power ;  that  joyous  tumult  of  emotions 
which  opens  the  soul  to  every  softer  sentiment,  and  to 
which  humanity  has  owed  so  many  of  the  most  valuable 
and  the  most  prized  of  its  institutions;  this  pleasing 
moment  had  for  him  long  passed  by,  or  had  never  existed. 
His  character  was  already  hardened  when  fortune  put 
him  to  this  severe  test,  and  his  settled  principles  with- 
stood the  collision  of  occasonal  emotion.  He  had  had 
time,  during  fifteen  years,  to  prepare  himself  for  the 
change ;  and  instead  of  youthful  dallying  with  the  exter- 
nal symbols  of  his  new  station,  or  of  losing  the  morning 
of  his  government  in  the  intoxication  of  an  idle  vanity, 
he  remained  composed  and  serious  enough  to  enter  at 
once  on  the  full  possession  of  his  power  so  as  to  revenge 
himself  through  the  most  extensive  employment  of  it  for 
its  having  been  so  long  withheld  from  him. 

THE    TRIBUNAL,    OF    THE    INQUISITION. 

Philip  IT.  no  sooner  saw  himself,  thi'ough  the  peace  of 
Chateau-Cambray,  in  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  his  im- 
mense territory  than  he  turned  his  whole  attention  to 
the  great  work  of  purifying  religion,  and  verified  the  fears 
of  his  Netherlandish  subjects.  The  ordinances  whicli  his 
father  had  caused  to  be  promulgated  against  heretics  were 
renewed  in  all  their  rigor,  and  terrible  tribunals,  to  whom 
nothing  but  the  name  of  inquisition  was  wanting,  were 
appointed  to  watch  over  their  execution.  But  his  plan 
appeared  to  him  scarcely  more  than  half-fulfilled  so  long 


KEVOLT   OF   THE    KETHEKLANDS.  DO 

as  he  could  not  transplant  into  these  countries  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  in  its  perfect  form  —  a  design  in  which  the 
Emperor  had  already  suffered  shipwreck. 

The  Spanish  Inquisition  is  an  institution  of  a  new  and 
peculiar  kind,  which  finds  no  prototype  in  the  whole 
course  of  time,  and  admits  of  comparison  with  no  eccle- 
siastical or  civil  tribunal.  Inquisition  had  existed  from 
the  time  when  reason  meddled  with  what  is  holy,  and 
from  the  very  commencement  of  scepticism  and  innova- 
tion ;  but  it  was  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
after  some  examples  of  apostasy  had  alarmed  the  hierarchy, 
that  Innocent  III.  first  erected  for  it  a  peculiar  tribunal,  and 
sepai'ated,  in  an  unnatural  manner,  ecclesiastical  superin- 
tendence and  instruction  from  its  judicial  and  retributive 
office.  In  order  to  be  the  more  sure  that  no  human  sensi- 
bilities or  natural  tenderness  should  thwart  the  stern 
severity  of  its  statutes,  he  took  it  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
bishops  and  secular  clergy,  who,  by  the  ties  of  civil  life, 
were  still  too  much  attached  to  humanity  for  his  purpose, 
and  consigned  it  to  those  of  the  monks,  a  half-denatural- 
ized race  of  beings  who  had  abjured  the  sacred  feelings 
of  nature,  and  were  the  servile  tools  of  the  Roman  See. 
The  Inquisition  was  received  in  Germany,  Italy,  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  France;  a  Franciscan  monk  sat  as  judge  in 
the  terrible  court,  which  passed  sentence  on  the  Templars. 
A  few  states  succeeded  either  in  totally  excluding  or  else 
in  subjecting  it  to  civil  authority.  The  Netherlands  had 
remained  free  from  it  until  the  government  of  Charles  V.; 
their  bishops  exercised  the  spiritual  censorship,  and  in 
extraordinary  cases  reference  was  made  to  foreign  courts 
of  inquisition ;  by  the  French  provinces  to  that  of  Paris, 
by  the  Germans  to  that  of  Cologne. 

But  the  Inquisition  which  we  are  here  speaking  of 
came  from  the  west  of  Europe,  and  was  of  a  different 
origin  and  form.  The  last  Moorish  throne  in  Granada 
had  fallen  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  false  faith  of 
the  Saracens  had  finally  succumbed  before  the  fortunes 
of  Christianity.  But  the  gospel  was  still  neAv,  and  but 
imperfectly  established  in  this  youngest  of  Christian 
kingdoms,  and  in  the  confused  mixture  of  heterogeneous 
laws  and  manners  the  religions  had  become  mixed.     It  is 


56  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

true  the  sword  of  persecution  had  driven  many  thousand 
families  to  Africa,  but  a  far  larger  portion,  detained  by 
the  love  of  clmiate  and  home,  purchased  remission  from 
this  dreadful  necessity  by  a  show  of  conversion,  and  con- 
tinued at  Christian  altars  to  serve  Mohammed  and  Moses, 
So  long  as  prayers  were  offered  towards  Mecca,  Granada 
was  not  subdued;  so  long  as  the  new  Christian,  in  the 
retirement  of  his  house,  became  again  a  Jew  or  a  Mos- 
lem, he  Avas  as  little  secured  to  the  throne  as  to  the 
Romish  See.  It  was  no  longer  deemed  sufficient  to  com- 
pel a  perverse  people  to  adopt  the  exterior  forms  of  a 
new  faith,  or  to  wed  it  to  the  victorious  church  by  the 
weak  bands  of  ceremonials ;  the  object  now  was  to  extir- 
pate the  roots  of  an  old  religion,  and  to  subdue  an  obsti- 
nate bias  which,  by  the  slow  operation  of  centuries,  had 
been  implanted  in  their  manners,  their  language,  and 
their  laws,  and  by  the  enduring  influence  of  a  paternal 
soil  and  sky  was  still  maintained  in  its  full  extent  and 


vigor 


If  the  church  wished  to  triumph  completely  over  the 
opposing  worship,  and  to  secure  her  new  conquest  beyond 
all  chance  of  I'elapse,  it  was  indispensable  that  she  should 
undermine  the  foundation  itself  on  which  the  old  religion 
Avas  built.  It  was  necessary  to  break  to  j^ieces  the  entire 
form  of  moral  character  to  whicli  it  was  so  closely  and 
intimately  attached.  It  was  requisite  to  loosen  its  secret 
roots  from  the  hold  they  had  taken  in  the  innermost 
depths  of  the  soul ;  to  extinguish  all  traces  of  it,  both  in 
domestic  life  and  in  the  civil  world ;  to  cause  all  recollec- 
tion of  it  to  perish;  and,  if  possible,  to  destroy  the  very 
susceptibility  for  its  impressions.  Country  and  family, 
conscience  and  honor,  the  sacred  feelings  of  society  and 
of  nature,  are  ever  the  first  and  immediate  ties  to  which 
religion  attaches  itself;  from  these  it  derives  while  it 
imparts  strength.  This  connection  was  now  to  be  dis- 
solved ;  the  old  religion  was  violently  to  be  dissevered 
from  the  holy  feelings  of  nature,  even  at  the  expense  of 
the  sanctity  itself  of  these  emotions.  Thus  arose  that 
Inquisition  which,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  more  humane 
tribunals  of  the  same  name,  we  usually  call  the  Spanish. 
Its  founder  was  Cardinal  Ximenes,  a  Dominican  monk. 


/       REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEIILAXDS.  57 

Torquemada   was    the    first   who    ascended    its   bloody 
throne,  who  establislied  its  statutes,  and  forever  cursed 
his  order  with  this  bequest.     Sworn  to  the  degradation 
of   the  understanding  and  the  murder  of  intellect,  the 
instruments  it  employed  were  terror  and  infamy.     Every 
evil  passion  was  in  its  pay ;  its  snare  was  set  in  every  joy 
of  life.     Solitude  itself  was  not  safe  from  it ;  the  fear  of 
its  omnipresence  fettered  the  freedom  of  the  soul  in  its 
inmost  and   deepest  recesses.     It  prostrated  all  the  in- 
stincts of   human  nature  before  it  yielded  all  the  ties 
which  otherwise  man  held  most  sacred.     A  heretic  for- 
feited all  claims  upon  his  race ;  the  most  trivial  infidelity 
to  his  mother  church  divested  him  of  the  rights  of  his 
nature.     A  modest  doubt  in  the  infallibility  of  the  pope 
met  with  the  punishment  of  parricide  and  the  infamy  of 
sodomy ;  its  sentences  resembled  the  frightful  corruption 
of  the  plague,  which  turns  the  most  healthy  body  into 
rapid  putrefaction.     Even  the  inanimate  things  belonging 
to  a  heretic  Avere  accursed.     No  destiny  could  snatch  the 
victim  of  the  Inquisition  from  its  sentence.     Its  decrees 
were  carried  in  force  on  corpses  and  on  pictures,  and  the 
gi'ave  itself   was  no  asylum  from  its  tremendous  arm. 
The  presumptuous  arrogance  of  its  decrees  could  only  be 
surpassed  by  the  inhumanity  which  executed  them.     By 
coupling  the  ludicrous  with  the  terrible,  and  by  amusing 
the  eye  with  the  strangeness  of  its  processions,  it  weak- 
ened compassion  by  the  gratification  of  another  feeling; 
it  drowned  sympathy  in  derision   and   contempt.     The 
delinquent  was  conducted  with  solemn  pomp  to  the  place 
of  execution,  a  blood-red  flag  Avas  displayed  before  him, 
the  universal  clang  of  all  the  bells  accompanied  the  pro- 
cession.    First  came  the  priests,  in  the  robes  of  the  Mass 
and  singing  a  sacred  hymn ;  next  followed  the  condemned 
sinner,  clothed  in  a  yellow  vest,  covered  with  figures  of 
black  devils.     On  his  head  he  wore  a  paper  cap,  sur- 
mounted by  a  human  figure,  around  which  played  lam- 
bent  flames   of    fire,   and   ghastly  demons  flitted.     The 
image  of  the  crucified  Saviour  was  carried  before,  but 
turned  away  fi'om  the  eternally  condemned  sinner,  for 
whom   salvation  was  no   longer  available.     His   mortal 
body  belonged  to  the  material  fire,  his  immortal  soul  to 


58  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

the  flames  of  hell.  A  gag  closed  his  mouth,  and  pre- 
vented him  from  alleviating  his  pain  by  lamentations, 
from  awakening  compassion  by  his  affecting  tale,  and 
from  divulging  the  secrets  of  the  holy  tribunal.  He  was 
followed  by  the  clergy  in  festive  robes,  by  the  magis- 
trates, and  the  nobility;  the  fathers  who  had  been  his 
judges  closed  the  awful  procession.  It  seemed  like  a 
solemn  funeral  procession,  but  on  looking  for  the  corpse 
on  its  way  to  the  grave,  behold  !  it  was  a  living  body 
whose  groans  are  now  to  afford  such  shuddei'ing  enter- 
tainment to  the  people.  The  executions  were  generally 
held  on  tlie  high  festivals,  for  which  a  number  of  such 
imfortunate  sufferers  were  reserved  in  the  prisons  of  the 
holy  house,  in  order  to  enhance  the  rejoicing  by  the  mul- 
titude of  tlie  victims,  and  on  these  occasions  the  king 
himself  was  usually  present.  He  sat  Avith  uncovered 
head,  on  a  lower  chair  than  that  of  the  Grand  Inquisitor, 
to  whom,  on  such  occasions,  he  yielded  precedence;  who, 
then,  would  not  tremble  before  a  tribunal  at  which 
majesty  must  humble  itself? 

The  great  revolution  in  the  church  accomplished  by 
Luther  and  Calvin  renewed  the  causes  to  which  this  tri- 
bunal owed  its  first  origin ;  and  that  which,  at  its  com- 
mencement, was  invented  to  clear  the  petty  kingdom  of 
Granada  from  the  feeble  remnant  of  Saracens  and  Jews 
was  now  required  for  the  whole  of  Christendom.  All 
the  Inquisitions  in  Portugal,  Italy,  Germany,  and  France 
adopted  the  form  of  the  Spanish  ;  it  followed  Europeans 
to  the  Indies,  and  established  in  Goa  a  fearful  tribunal, 
whose  inhuman  proceedings  make  us  shudder  even  at  the 
bare  recital.  Wherever  it  planted  its  foot  devastation 
followed  ;  but  in  no  part  of  the  world  did  it  rage  so  vio- 
lently as  in  Spain.  The  victims  are  forgotten  whom  it 
immolated  ;  the  human  race  renews  itself,  and  the  lands, 
too,  flourish  again  which  it  has  devastated  and  depopula- 
ted by  its  fury ;  but  centuries  will  elapse  before  its  traces 
disappear  from  the  Spanish  character.  A  generous  and 
enlightened  nation  has  been  stopped  by  it  on  its  road  to 
perfection  ;  it  has  banished  genius  from  a  region  where  it 
was  indigenous,  and  a  stillness  like  that  which  hangs 
over  the  grave  has  been  left  in  the  mind  of  a  people  who. 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS,  59 

beyond  most  others  of  our  world,  were  framed  for  hap- 
l^iness  and  enjoyment. 

The  first  Inquisitor  in  Brabant  was  appointed  by 
Charles  V.  in  tlie  year  1522.  Some  priests  M'ere  asso- 
ciated with  him  as  coadjutors;  but  he  liimself  was  a  Lay- 
man. After  the  death  of  Adrian  VI.,  his  successor, 
Clement  VII.,  appointed  three  Inquisitors  for  all  the 
Netherlands ;  and  Paul  III.  again  reduced  them  to  two, 
which  number  continued  until  the  commencement  of  the 
troubles.  In  the  year  1530,  with  the  aid  and  approba- 
tion of  the  states,  the  edicts  against  heretics  were  pro- 
mulgated, which  formed  the  foundation  of  all  that  fol- 
lowed, and  in  which,  also,  express  mention  is  made  of  the 
Inquisition.  In  the  year  1550,  in  consequence  of  the 
rapid  increase  of  sects,  Charles  V.  was  under  the  neces- 
sity of  reviving  and  enforcing  these  edicts,  and  it  was  on 
this  occasion  that  the  town  of  Antwerp  opposed  the 
establishment  of  the  Inquisition,  and  obtained  an  exemp- 
tion from  its  jurisdiction.  But  the  spirit  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion in  the  Netherlands,  in  accordance  Avith  the  genius  of 
the  country,  was  more  Immane  than  in  Spain,  and  as  yet 
had  never  been  administered  by  a  foreigner,  much  less 
by  a  Dominican.  The  edicts  which  were  known  to  every- 
body served  it  as  the  rule  of  its  decisions.  On  this  very 
account  it  was  less  obnoxious ;  because,  however  severe 
its  sentence,  it  did  not  appear  a  tool  of  arbitrary  power, 
and  it  did  not,  like  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  veil  itself  in 
secrecy. 

Philip,  however,  was  desirous  of  introducing  the  latter 
tribunal  into  the  Netherlands,  since  it  appeared  to  him 
the  instrument  best  adapted  to  destroy  the  spirit  of  this 
people,  and  to  prepare  them  for  a  despotic  government. 
He  began,  therefore,  by  increasing  the  rigor  of  the  re- 
ligious ordinances  of  his  father;  by  gradually  extending 
the  power  of  the  inquisitors  ;  by  making  the  proceedings 
more  arbitrary,  and  more  independent  of  the  civil  juris- 
diction. The  tribunal  soon  wanted  little  more  than  the 
name  and  the  Dominicans  to  resemble  in  every  point  the 
Spanish  Inquisition.  Bare  suspicion  was  enough  to 
snatch  a  citizen  from  the  bosom  of  public  tranquillity, 
and  from  his  domestic  circle ;  and  the  weakest  evidence 


60  REVOLT   OF   THE  NETHERLANDS. 

was  a  sufficient  justification  for  the  use  of  the  rack.  Who- 
ever fell  into  its  abyss  returned  no  more  to  the  world. 
All  the  benefits  of  the  laws  ceased  for  him ;  the  maternal 
care  of  justice  no  longer  noticed  him;  beyond  the  pale  of 
his  former  world  malice  and  stupidity  judged  him  accord- 
ing to  laws  which  were  never  intended  for  man.  The 
delinquent  never  knew  his  accuser,  and  very  seldom  his 
crime,  —  a  flagitious,  devilish  artifice  which  constrained 
the  unhappy  victim  to  guess  at  his  error,  and  in  the* 
delirium  of  the  rack,  or  in  the  weariness  of  a  long  living 
interment,  to  acknowledge  transgressions  which,  perhaps, 
had  never  been  committed,  or  at  least  had  never  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  his  judges.  The  goods  of  the  con- 
demned were  confiscated,  and  the  informer  encouraged 
by  letters  of  grace  and  rewards.  No  privilege,  no  civil 
jurisdiction  was  valid  against  the  holy  power;  the  secular 
arm  lost  forever  all  whom  that  power  had  once  touched. 
Its  only  share  in  the  judicial  duties  of  the  latter  was  to 
execute  its  sentences  with  humble  submissiveness.  The 
consequences  of  such  an  institution  were,  of  necessity, 
unnatural  and  horrible;  the  whole  temporal  happiness, 
the  life  itself,  of  an  innocent  man  was  at  the  mercy  of  any 
worthless  fellow.  Every  secret  enemy,  every  envious 
person,  had  now  the  perilous  temptation  of  an  unseen 
and  unfailing  revenge.  The  security  of  property,  the 
sincerity  of  intercourse  were  gone  ;  all  the  ties  of  interest 
were  dissolved ;  all  of  blood  and  of  affection  were  irre- 
parably broken.  An  infectious  distrust  envenomed  social 
life ;  the  dreaded  presence  of  a  spy  terrified  the  eye  from 
seeing,  and  choked  the  voice  in  the  midst  of  utterance. 
No  one  believed  in  the  existence  of  an  honest  man,  or 
passed  for  one  himself.  Good  name,  the  ties  of  country, 
brotherhood,  even  oaths,  and  all  that  man  holds  sacred, 
were  fallen  in  estimation.  Such  was  the  destiny  to  which 
a  great  and  flourishing  commercial  town  was  subjected, 
where  one  hundred  thousand  industrious  men  had  been 
brought  together  by  the  single  tie  of  mutual  confidence, 
—  every  one  indispensable  to  his  neighbor,  yet  every  one 
distrusted  and  distrustful,  —  all  attracted  by  the  spirit 
of  gain,  and  repelled  from  each  other  by  fear,  —  all  tlie 
props  of  society  torn  away,  where  social  union  was  the 
basis  of  all  life  and  all  existence. 


REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  61 


OTHEB    ENCROACHMENTS    ON    THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

NETHERLANDS. 

No  wonder  if  so  unnatural  a  tribunal,  which  had  proved 
intolerable  even  to  the  more  submissive  spirit  of  the 
Spaniard,  drove  a  free  state  to  rebellion.  But  the  terror 
which  it  inspired  was  increased  by  the  Spanish  troops, 
which,  even  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  were  kept  in 
the  country,  and,  in  violation  of  the  constitution,  garrisoned 
border  towns.  Charles  V.  had  been  forgiven  for  this 
introduction  of  foreign  troops  so  long  as  the  necessity  of 
it  was  evident,  and  "his  good  intentions  were  less  dis- 
trusted. But  now  men  saw  in  these  troops  only  the 
alarming  preparations  of  oppression  and  the  instruments 
of  a  detested  hierarchy.  Moreover,  a  considerable  body 
of  cavalry,  composed  of  natives,  and  fully  adequate  for 
the  protection  of  the  country,  made  these  foreigners 
superfluous.  The  licentiousness  and  rapacity,  too,  of 
the  Spaniards,  whose  pay  was  long  in  arrear,  and  who 
indemnified  tliemselves  at  the  expense  of  the  citizens, 
completed  the  exasperation  of  the  people,  and  drove  the 
lower  orders  to  despair.  Subsequently,  when  the  general 
murmur  induced  the  government  to  move  them  from  the 
frontiers  and  transport  them  into  the  islands  of  Zealand, 
where  ships  were  prepared  for  their  deportation,  their 
excesses  were  carried  to  such  a  pitch  that  the  inhabitants 
left  off  working  at  the  embankments,  and  preferred  to 
abandon  their  native  country  to  the  fury  of  the  sea  rather 
than  to  submit  any  longer  to  the  wanton  brutality  of  these 
lawless  bands. 

Philip,  indeed,  would  have  wished  to  retain  these 
Spaniards  in  the  country,  in  order  by  their  presence  to 
o-ive  weight  to  his  edicts,  and  to  support  the  innovations 
which  he  had  resolved  to  make  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Netherlands.  He  regarded  them  as  a  guarantee  for  the 
submission  of  the  nation  and  as  a  chai*  by  which  he  held 
it  captive.  Accordingly,  he  left  no  expedient  untried 
to  evade  the  persevering  importunity  of  the  states,  who 
demanded  the  withdrawal  of  these  troops ;  and  for  this 
end  he  exhausted  all  the  resources  of  chicanery  and  per. 
suasion.     At  one  time  he  pretended  to  dread  a  sudden 


62  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

invasion  by  France,  although,  torn  by  furious  factions,  that 
country  could  scarce  support  itself  against  a  domestic 
enemy ;  at  another  time  they  were,  he  said,  to  receive  his 
son,  Don  Carlos,  on  the  frontiers;  whom,  however,  he 
never  intended  should  leave  Castile.  Their  maintenance 
should  not  be  a  burden  to  the  nation ;  he  himself  would 
disburse  all  their  expenses  from  his  private  purse.  In 
order  to  detain  them  with  the  more  appearance  of  reason 
lie  purposely  kept  back  from  them  their  arrears  of  pay ; 
for  otherwise  he  would  assuredly  have  preferred  them 
to  the  troops  of  the  country,  whose  demands  he  fully 
satisfied.  To  lull  the  fears  of  the  nation,  and  to  appease 
the  general  discontent,  he  offered  tlie  chief  command  of 
these  troops  to  the  two  favorites  of  the  people,  the  Prince 
of  Orange  and  Count  Egmont.  Both,  however,  declined 
his  offer,  with  the  noble-minded  declaration  that  they 
could  never  make  up  their  minds  to  serve  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  country.  The  more  desire  the  king  showed 
to  have  his  Spaniards  in  the  country  the  more  obstinately 
the  states  insisted  on  their  removal.  In  the  following 
Diet  at  Ghent  he  was  compelled,  in  the  very  midst  of 
his  courtiers,  to  listen  to  republican  truth.  "Why  are 
foreign  hands  needed  for  our  defence?"  demanded  the 
Syndic  of  Ghent.  "  Is  it  that  the  rest  of  the  world  should 
consider  us  too  stupid,  or  too  cowardly,  to  protect  our- 
selves? Why  have  we  made  peace  if  the  burdens  of 
war  are  still  to  oppress  us?  In  war  necessity  enforced 
endurance ;  in  peace  our  jjatience  is  exhausted  by  its 
burdens.  Or  shall  we  be  able  to  keep  in  order  these 
licentious  bands  which  thine  own  presence  could  not 
restrain  ?  Here,  Cambray  and  Antwerp  cry  for  redress  ; 
there,  Thionville  and  Marienburg  lie  waste ;  and,  surely, 
thou  hast  not  bestowed  upon  us  peace  that  our  cities 
should  become  deserts,  as  they  necessarily  must  if  thou 
freest  them  not  from  these  destroyers?  Perhaps  thou 
art  anxious  to  gujird  against  surprise  from  our  neighbors? 
This  precaution  is  wise ;  but  the  report  of  their  prepara- 
tions will  long  outrun  their  hostilities.  Why  incur  a 
heavy  expense  to  engage  foreigners  who  will  not  care 
for  a  country  which  they  must  leave  to-morrow  ?  Hast 
thou  not  still  at  thy  command  the  same  brave  Nether- 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  G3 

landers  to  whom  thy  father  entrusted  the  republic  in  far 
more  troubled  times?  Wliy  shouldest  thou  now  doubt 
their  loyalty,  which,  to  thy  ancestors,  they  have  preserved 
for  so  many  centuries  inviolate?  Will  not  they  be 
sufficient  to  sustain  the  war  long  enough  to  give  time  to 
thy  confederates  to  join  their  banners,  or  to  thyself  to 
send  succor  from  the  neighboring  country?  This 
language  was  too  new  to  the  king,  and  its  truth  too 
obvious  for  him  to  be  able  at  once  to  reply  to  it.  "  I, 
also,  am  a  foreigner,"  he  at  length  exclaimed,  "  and  they 
would  like,  I  suppose,  to  expel  me  from  the  country ! " 
At  the  same  time  he  descended  from  the  throne,  and  left 
the  assembly;  but  the  speaker  was  pardoned  for  his 
boldness.  Two  days  afterwards  he  sent  a  message  to 
the  states  that  if  he  had  been  apprised  earlier  that  these 
troops  were  a  burden  to  them  he  would  have  immediately 
made  preparation  to  remove  them  with  himself  to  Spain. 
Now  it  was  too  late,  for  they  would  not  depart  unpaid ; 
but  he  pledged  them  his  most  sacred  promise  tliat  they 
sliould  not  be  oppressed  with  this  burden  more  than  four 
months.  Nevertheless,  the  troops  remained  in  this 
country  eighteen  months  instead  of  four ;  and  would  not, 
perliaps,  even  then  have  left  it  so  soon  if  the  exigencies 
of  the  state  had  not  made  their  presence  indispensable  in 
another  part  of  the  world. 

The  illegal  appointment  of  foreigners  to  the  most 
important  offices  of  the  country  afforded  further  occasion 
of  complaint  against  the  government.  Of  all  the  privi- 
leges of  the  provinces  none  was  so  obnoxious  to  the 
Spaniards  as  that  which  excluded  strangers  from  office, 
and  none  they  had  so  zealously  sought  to  abrogate.  Italy, 
the  two  Indies,  and  all  the  provinces  of  this  vast  Empire, 
were  indeed  open  to  their  rapacity  and  ambition ;  but 
from  the  richest  of  them  all  an  inexorable  fundamental 
law  excluded  them.  They  artfully  persuaded  their 
sovereign  that  his  power  in  these  countries  would  never 
be  firmly  established  so  long  as  he  could  not  employ 
foreigners  as  his  instruments.  The  Bishop  of  Arras,  a 
Burgundian  by  birth,  had  already  been  illegally  forced 
upon  the  Flemings ;  and  now  the  Count  of  Fei-ia,  a 
Castilian,  was  to  receive  a  seat  and  voice  in  the  council 


G4  REVOLT   OF  THE   NETHEIILAND8. 

of  state.  But  this  attempt  met  with  a  bolder  resistance 
than  the  king's  flatterers  had  led  him  to  expect,  and  his 
despotic  omnipotence  was  this  time  wrecked  by  tlie 
politic  measures  of  William  of  Orange  and  the  firmness 
of  the  states. 

WILLIAM   OF    ORANGE    AND   COUNT   EGMONT. 

By  such  measures,  did  Philip  usher  in  his  government 
of  the  Netherlands,  and  such  were  the  grievances  of  the 
nation  when  he  was  preparing  to  leave  them.  He  had 
long  been  impatient  to  quit  a  country  where  he  was  a 
stranger,  where  there  was  so  mucli  that  opposed  his  secret 
wishes,  and  wl)ere  his  despotic  mind  found  such  undaunted, 
monitors  to  remind  him  of  the  laws  of  freedom.  The 
peace  with  France  at  last  rendered  a  longer  stay  un- 
necessary; tlie  armaments  of  Soliman  required  his 
presence  in  the  south,  and  the  Spaniards  also  began  to 
miss  their  long-absent  king.  Tiie  choice  of  a  supreme 
Stadtholder  for  the  Netherlands  was  the  principal  matter 
which  still  detained  him.  Emanuel  Pliilibert,  Duke  of 
Savoy,  had  filled  this  place  since  the  resignation  of  Mary, 
Queen  of  Hungary,  which,  however,  so  long  as  the  king 
liimself  was  present,  conferred  more  honor  than  real 
influence.  His  absence  would  make  it  the  most  important 
office  in  the  monarchy,  and  the  most  splendid  aim  for  the 
ambition  of  a  subject.  It  had  now  become  vacant 
through  the  departure  of  the  duke,  whom  the  peace  of 
Chateau-Cambray  had  restored  to  his  dominions.  The 
almost  unlimited  power  with  which  the  supreme  Stat- 
holder  would  be  entrusted,  the  capacity  and  experience 
which  so  extensive  and  delicate  an  appointment  required, 
but,  especially,  the  daring  designs  which  the  government 
had  in  contemplation  against  the  freedom  of  the  country, 
the  execution  of  which  would  devolve  on  him,  necessarily 
embarrassed  the  choice.  The  law,  which  excluded  all 
foreigners  from  office,  made  an  exception  in  the  case  of 
the  supreme  Stadtliolder.  As  he  could  not  be  at  the 
same  time  a  native  of  all  the  provinces,  it  was  allowable 
for  him  not  to  belong  to  any  one  of  them  ;  for  the  jealousy 
of  the  man  of  Brabant  would  concede  no  greater  right  to 


REVOLT    OF    THE   NETHERLANDS.  65 

a  Fleming,  whose  home  Avas  half  a  mile  from  his  frontier, 
than  to  a  Sicilian,  who  lived  in  another  soil  and  under  a 
different  sky.  But  here  the  interests  of  the  crown  itself 
seemed  to  favor  the  appointment  of  a  native.  A  Bra- 
banter,  for  instance,  whp  enjoyed  the  full  confidence  of 
his  countrymen  if  he  were  a  traitor  would  have  half 
accomplished  his  treason  before  a  foreign  governor  could 
have  overcome  the  mistrust  with  which  his  most  insig- 
niticant  measures  would  be  watched.  If  the  government 
should  succeed  in  carrying  through  its  designs  in  one 
province,  the  opposition  of  the  rest  would  then  be  a 
temerity,  which  it  would  be  justified  in  punishing  in  the 
severest  manner.  In  the  common  whole  which  the 
provinces  now  formed  their  individual  constitutions 
were,  in  a  measure,  destroyed ;  the  obedience  of  one 
would  be  a  law  for  all,  and  the  privilege,  which  one  knew 
not  how  to  preserve,  was  lost  for  the  rest. 

Among  the  Flemish  nobles  who  could  lay  claim  to  the 
Chief  Stadtholdership,  the  expectations  and  wishes  of  the 
nation  were  divided  between  Count  Egmont  and  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  who  were  alike  qualified  for  this  high 
dignity  by  illustrious  birth  and  personal  merits,  and  by 
an  equal  share  in  the  affections  of  the  people.  Their  high 
rank  placed  them  both  near  to  the  throne,  and  if  the  choice 
of  the  monarch  was  to  rest  on  the  worthiest  it  must 
necessarily  fall  upon  one  of  these  two.  As,  in  the  course 
of  our  history,  we  shall  often  have  occasion  to  mention 
both  names,  the  reader  cannot  be  too  early  made  ac- 
quainted with  their  characters. 

William  I.,  Prince  of  Orange,  was  descended  from  the 
princely  German  house  of  Nassau,  which  had  already 
flourished  eight  centui'ies,  had  long  disputed  the  pre- 
eminence with  Austria,  and  had  given  one  Emperor  to 
Germany.  Besides  several  extensive  domains  in  the 
Netherlands,  which  made  him  a  citizen  of  this  republic 
and  a  vassal  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  he  possessed  also 
in  Fr.ince  the  independent  princedom  of  Orange.  Wil- 
liam was  born  in  the  year  1538,  at  Dillenburg,  in  the 
country  of  Nassau,  of  a  Countess  Stolberg.  His  father, 
the  Count  of  Nassau,  of  the  same  name,  had  embraced 
the  Protestant  religion,  and  caused  his  son  also  to  be  edu- 


66  EEVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

cated  in  it;  but  Charles  V.,  who  early  formed  an  attach- 
ment for  the  boy,  took  him  when  quite  young  to  his  court, 
and  had  him  brought  uj)  in  the  Komish  churcli.  This 
monarch,  who  ah'eady  in  the  child  discovered  the  future 
greatness  of  the  man,  kept  him  nine  years  about  his 
person,  thought  him  Avortliy  of  his  personal  instruction  in 
the  affairs  of  government,  and  honored  him  with  a  conli- 
dence  beyond  his  years.  He  alone  was  permitted  to 
remain  in  the  Emperor's  presence  when  he  gave  audience 
to  foreign  ambassadors  —  a  proof  that,  even  as  a  boy,  he 
had  already  begun  to  merit  the  surname  of  the  Silent. 
The  Emperor  was  not  ashamed  even  to  confess  openly, 
on  one  occasion,  that  this  young  man  had  often  made 
suggestions  which  would  have  escaped  his  own  sa- 
gacity. What  expectations  might  not  be  formed  of 
the  intellect  of  a  man  who  was  disciplined  in  such  a 
school. 

William  was  twenty-three  years  old  when  Charles  abdi- 
cated the  government,  and  liad  already  received  from  the 
latter  two  public  marks  of  the  highest  esteem.  The 
Emperor  had  entrusted  to  him,  in  preference  to  all  tlie 
nobles  of  his  court,  the  honorable  office  of  conveying 
to  his  brother  Ferdinand  the  imperial  crown.  When  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  who  commanded  the  imperial  army  in 
the  Netherlands,  was  called  away  to  Italy  by  the  exigency 
of  his  domestic  affairs,  the  Emperor  appointed  him  com- 
mander-in-chief against  the  united  representations  of  his 
military  council,  who  declared  it  altogether  hazardous 
to  oppose  so  young  a  tyro  in  arms  to  the  experienced 
generals  of  France.  Absent,  and  unrecommended  by 
any,  he  was  preferred  by  the  monarch  to  the  laurel- 
crowned  band  of  his  heroes,  and  the  result  gave  him  no 
cause  to  repent  of  his  choice. 

The  marked  favor  which  the  prince  liad  enjoyed  with 
the  father  was  in  itself  a  sufficient  ground  for  his  exclu- 
sion from  the  confidence  of  the  son.  Philip,  it  appears, 
had  laid  it  down  for  himself  as  a  rule  to  avenge  the 
wrongs  of  the  Spanish  nobility  for  the  preference  which 
Charles  V.  had  on  all  important  occasions  shown  to  his 
Flemish  nobles.  Still  stronger,  however,  were  the  secret 
motives  which  alienated  him  from  the  prince.     William 


REVOLT   OF   THE   jSETHERLAXDS.  67 

of   Orange  was    one  of  those  lean  and  pale   men    who, 
according  to  Cfesar's  words,  "  sleep  not  at  night,  and  think 
too  much,"  and  before  whom  the  most  fearless  spirits  quail. 
The  calm    tranquillity  of   a   never-varying    countenance 
concealed  a  busy,  ardent  soul,  which  never  ruffled  even 
the  veil  behind  which  it  worked,  and  was  alike  inaccessible 
to  artitice  and  love  ;  a  versatile,  formidable,  indefatigable 
mind,  soft,   and   ductile    enough  to    be   instantaneously 
moulded  into  all  forms ;    guarded   enough  to  lose  itself 
in  none;  and  strong  enough  to  endure  every  vicissitude 
of  fortune.     A  greater  master  in  reading  and  in  winning 
men's  hearts  never  existed  than  William.    Not  that,  after 
the  fashion  of  courts,  his  lips  avowed  a  servility  to  which 
his  proud  heart  gave  the  lie  ;  but  because  he  was  neither 
too  sparing  nor  too  lavish  of  the  marks  of  his  esteem,  and 
through  a  skilful    economy  of  the  favors  which  mostly 
bind  men,  he  increased  his  real    stock   in   them.      The 
fruits  of  his  meditation   were   as   perfect  as  they  were 
slowly  formed  ;  his  resolves  were  as  steadily  and  indom- 
itably accomplished  as  they  were  long  in  maturing.     No 
obstacles  could  defeat  the  plan  which  he  had  once  adopted 
as  the  best ;  no  accidents   frustrated  it,  for  they  all  had 
been  foreseen  before  they  actually  occurred.    High  as  his 
feelings  were  raised    above  terror  and   joy,  they  were, 
nevertheless,  subject  in  the  same  degree  to  fear  ;  but  his 
fear  was  earlier  than   the  danger,  and  he  was  calm  in 
tumult  because   he   had    trembled    in   repose.     William 
lavished  his  gold  with  a  profuse  hand,  but  he  was  a  nig- 
gard of  his  movements.     The   hours  of  repast  w'cre  the 
sole  hours  of  relaxation,  but  these  were  exclusivelv  devoted 
to  his  heart,  his  family,  and  his  friends  ;  this  the  modest 
deduction  he    allowed   himself    from    the    cares   of    his 
country.     Here  his  brow  was  cleared  with  wine,  seasoned 
by  temperance  and  a  cheerful  disposition  ;  and  no  serious 
cares  were  permitted  to  enter  this  recess  of  enjoyment. 
His  household  was  magnificent;  the  splendor  of  a  numer- 
ous retinue,  the  number  and  respectability  of  those  who 
surrounded  his  person,  made  his  habitation  resemble  the 
court  of  a  sovereign  prince.     A  sumptuous  hospitality, 
that  master-spell  of  demagogues,  was  the  goddess  of  his 
palace.     Foreign  princes  and  ambassadors  found  here  a 


68  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

fitting  reception  and  entertainment,  which  surpassed  all 
that  luxurious  Belgium  could  elsewhere  offer.  A  humble 
submissiveness  to  the  government  bought  off  the  blame 
and  suspicion  which  this  munificence  might  have  thrown 
on  his  intentions.  But  this  liberality  secured  for  him  the 
affections  of  the  people,  whom  nothing  gratified  so  much 
as  to  see  the  riches  of  their  country  displayed  before 
admiring  foreigners,  and  the  high  pinnacle  of  fortune  on 
which  he  stood  enhanced  the  value  of  the  courtesy  to 
which  he  condescended.  No  one,  probably,  was  better 
fitted  by  nature  for  the  leader  of  a  conspiracy  than  Wil- 
liam the  Silent.  A  comprehensive  and  intuitive  glance 
into  the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future  ;  the  talent  for 
improving  every  favorable  opportunity ;  a  commanding 
influence  over  the  minds  of  men,  vast  schemes  which  only 
when  viewed  from  a  distance  show  form  and  symmetry  ; 
and  bold  calculations  which  were  wound  up  in  the  long 
chain  of  futurity ;  all  these  faculties  he  possessed,  and 
kept,  moreover,  under  the  control  of  that  free  and 
enlightened  virtue  which  moves  with  firm  step  even  on 
the  very  edge  of  the  abyss. 

A  man  like  this  might  at  other  times  have  remained 
unfathomed  by  his  whole  generation  ;  but  not  so  by  the 
distrustful  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  Philip  II. 
saw  quickly  and  deeply  into  a  character  which,  among 
good  ones,  most  resembled  his  own.  If  he  had  not  seen 
through  him  so  clearly  his  distrust  of  a  man,  in  whom 
were  united  nearly  all  the  qualities  which  he  prized  high- 
est and  could  best  appreciate,  would  be  quite  inexplicable. 
But  William  had  another  and  still  more  important  point 
of  contact  with  Philip  II.  He  had  learned  his  policy 
from  the  same  master,  and  had  become,  it  was  to  be 
feared,  a  more  apt  scholar.  Not  by  making  Machiavelli's 
'■Prince''  his  study,  but  by  having  enjoyed  the  living 
instruction  of  a  monarch  who  reduced  the  book  to  prac- 
tice, had  he  become  versed  in  the  perilous  arts  by  which 
thrones  rise  and  fall.  In  him  Philip  had  to  deal  with  an 
antagonist  who  was  armed  against  his  policy,  and  who  in 
a  good  cause  could  also  command  the  resources  of  a  bad 
one.  And  it  was  exactly  this  last  circumstance  which 
accounts  for  his  having  hated   this  man   so  implacably 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  69 

above  all  others  of  his  day,  and  his  having  bad  so  super- 
natural a  dread  of  him. 

The  suspicion  which  already  attached  to  the  prince  was 
increased  by  the  doubts  which  were  entertained  of  his 
religious  bias.  So  long  as  the  Emperor,  his  benefactor, 
lived,  William  believed  in  the  pope ;  but  it  was  feared, 
with  good  ground,  that  the  predilection  for  the  reformed 
religion,  which  had  been  im])arted  into  his  young  heart, 
liad  never  entirely  left  it.  VV^hatever  church  he  may  at 
certain  j^eriods  of  his  life  have  preferred  each  might  con- 
sole itself  with  the  reflection  that  none  other  possessed 
liim  more  entirely.  In  later  years  he  went  over  to 
Calvinism  with  almost  as  little  scruple  as  in  his  early 
childhood  he  deserted  the  Lutheran  profession  for  the 
Komish.  He  defended  the  rights  of  the  Protestants 
rather  than  their  opinions  against  Spanish  oppression  ; 
not  their  faith,  but  their  wrongs,  had  made  him  their 
brother. 

These  general  grounds  for  suspicion  ajipeared  to  be 
justified  by  a  discovery  of  his  real  intentions  which  acci- 
dent had  made.  William  had  remained  in  France  as 
hostage  for  the  peace  of  Chateau-Cambray,  in  concluding 
which  he  had  borne  a  part;  and  here,  through  the  impru- 
dence of  Henry  II.,  who  imagined  he  spoke  with  a  con- 
fidant of  the  King  of  Spain,  he  became  acquainted  with 
a  secret  plot  which  the  French  and  Spanish  courts  had 
formed  against  Protestants  of  both  kino-doms.  The 
prmce  hastened  to  communicate  this  important  discovery 
to  his  friends  in  Brussels,  whom  it  so  nearly  concerned, 
and  the  letters  which  he  exchanged  on  the  subject  fell, 
unfortunately,  into  the  liands  of  the  King  of  Spain. 
Philip  Avas  less  surprised  at  this  decisive  disclosure  of 
William's  sentiments  than  incensed  at  the  disappointment 
of  his  scheme  ;  and  the  Spanish  nobles,  who  had  never 
forgiven  the  prince  that  moment,  when  in  the  last  act  of 
his  life  the  greatest  of  Emperors  leaned  upon  his  shoul- 
ders, did  not  neglect  this  favorable  opportunity  of  finally 
ruining,  in  the  good  opinion  of  their  king,  the  betrayer 
of  a  state  secret. 

Of  a  lineage  no  less  noble  than  that  of  William  was 
Lamoral,  Count  Egmont  and  Prince  of  Gavre,  a  descend- 


70  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

ant  of  the  Dukes  of  Gueldres,  whose  martial  courage  had 
wearied  out  the  arms  of  Austria.  His  family  was  highly 
distinguished  in  the  annals  of  the  country;  one  of  his 
ancestors,  had,  under  Maximilian,  already  filled  the  office 
of  Stadtholder  over  Holland.  Egmont's  marriage  with 
the  Duchess  Sabina  of  Bavaria  reflected  additional  lustre 
on  tlie  splendor  of  his  birth,  and  made  him  powerful 
through  the  greatness  of  this  alliance.  Charles  V.  had, 
in  the  year  1516,  conferred  on  him  at  Utrecht  the  order 
of  the  Golden  Fleece ;  the  wars  of  this  Emperor  were  the 
school  of  his  military  genius,  and  tlie  battle  of  St.  Quentin 
and  Gravelines  made  him  the  hero  of  his  age.  Every 
blessing  of  peace,  for  which  a  commercial  jjeople  feel 
most  grateful,  brought  to  mind  the  remembrance  of  the 
victory  by  wliich  it  was  accelei-ated,  and  Flemish  pride, 
like  a  fond  mother,  exulted  over  the  illustrious  son  of 
their  country,  who  had  filled  all  Europe  with  admiration. 
Nine  children  who  grew  up  under  the  eyes  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  multiplied  and  drew  closer  the  ties  between  him 
and  his  fatherland,  and  the  people's  grateful  affection  for 
the  father  was  kept  alive  by  the  sight  of  those  who  were 
dearest  to  him.  Every  ai)pearance  of  Egmont  in  public 
was  a  triumphal  procession  ;  every  eye  which  was  fastened 
upon  him  recounted  his  history ;  his  deeds  lived  in  the 
plauctits  of  his  companions-in-arms ;  at  the  games  of  chiv- 
alry mothers  pointed  him  out  to  their  children.  Affability, 
a  noble  and  courteous  demeanor,  the  amiable  virtues  of 
chivalry,  adorned  and  graced  his  merits.  His  liberal 
soul  shone  forth  on  his  open  brow  ;  his  frank-heartedness 
managed  his  secrets  no  better  than  his  benevolence  did 
his  estate,  and  a  thought  was  no  sooner  his  than  it  Avas 
the  property  of  all.  His  religion  was  gentle  and  humane, 
but  not  very  enlightened,  because  it  derived  its  light  from 
the  heart  and  not  from  his  understanding.  Egmont 
possessed  more  of  conscience  than  of  fixed  principles  ;  his 
head  had  not  given  him  a  code  of  its  own,  but  had  merely 
learnt  it  by  rote  ;  the  mere  name  of  any  action,  therefore, 
was  often  with  him  sufficient  for  its  condemnation.  In 
his  judgment  men  were  wholly  bad  or  wholly  good,  and 
had  not  something  T)ad  or  something  good  ;  in  this  system 
of  morals  there  was  no  middle  term  between  vice  and 


REVOLT   OF   TPIE   NETHERLANDS.  71 

virtue  ;  and  consequently  a  single  good  trait  often  decided 
liis  o])inion  of  men.  Egmont  united  all  the  eminent 
qualities  which  form  the  hero ;  he  was  a  better  soldier 
than  the  Prince  of  Orange,  but  far  inferior  to  him  as  a 
statesman;  the  latter  saw  the  world  as  it  really  was; 
Egmont  viewed  it  in  the  magic  mirror  of  an  imagination 
tliat  embellished  all  that  it  reflected.  Men,  whom  fortune 
lias  surprised  with  a  reward  for  which  they  can  find  no 
adequate  ground  in  their  actions,  are,  for  the  most  part, 
very  apt  to  forget  the  necessary  connection  between  cause 
and  effect,  and  to  insert  in  the  natural  consequences  of 
things  a  higher  miraculous  power  to  which,  as  Caesar  to 
liis  fortune,  they  at  last  insanely  trust.  Such  a  character 
was  Egmont.  Intoxicated  with  the  idea  of  his  own 
merits,  which  the  love  and  gratitude  of  his  fellow-citizens 
liad  exaggerated,  he  staggered  on  in  this  sweet  reverie 
as  in  a  delightful  world  of  dreams.  He  feared  not,  be- 
cause he  trusted  to  the  deceitful  pledge  which  destiny 
had  given  him  of  her  favor,  in  the  general  love  of  the 
people;  and  he  believed  in  its  justice  because  he  himself 
was  prosperous.  Even  the  most  terrible  experience  of 
Spanish  perfidy  could  not  afterwards  eradicate  this  con- 
fidence fi'om  his  soul,  and  on  the  scaffold  itself  his  latest 
feeling  was  hope.  A  tender  fear  for  his  family  kept  his 
patriotic  courage  fettered  by  lower  duties.  Because 
he  trembled  for  property  and  life  he  could  not  venture 
much  for  the  republic.  William  of  Orange  broke  with 
the  throne  because  its  arbitrary  power  was  offensive  to 
his  pride  ;  Egmont  was  vain,  and  therefore  valued  the 
favors  of  the  monarch.  The  former  Avas  a  citizen  of  the 
world  ;  Egmont  had  never  been  more  than  a  Fleming. 

Philip  II.  still  stood  indebted  to  the  hero  of  St.  Quentin, 
and  the  supreme  stadtholdership  of  the  Netherlands 
appeared  tlie  only  appropriate  reward  for  such  great 
services.  Birth  and  high  station,  the  voice  of  the  nation 
and  personal  abilities,  spoke  as  loudly  for  Egmont  as  for 
Orange ;  and  if  the  latter  was  to  be  passed  by  it  seemed 
that  the  former  alone  could  supplant  him. 

Two  such  competitors,  so  equal  in  merit,  might  have 
embarrassed  Philip  in  his  choice  if  he  had  ever  seriously 
thought  of  selecting  cither  of  them  for  the  a2>pointment. 


72  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS 

But  the  pre-eminent  qualities  by  wliich  they  supported 
their  claim  to  this  office  were  the  very  cause  of  their 
rejection  ;  and  it  was  precisely  the  ardent  desire  of  the 
nation  for  their  election  to  it  that  irrevocably  annulled 
their  title  to  the  appointment.  Philip's  purpose  would 
not  be  answered  by  a  stadtholder  in  the  Netherlands  who 
could  command  the  good-will  and  the  energies  of  the 
people.  Egniont's  descent  from  the  Duke  of  Gueldres 
made  him  an  hereditary  foe  of  tlie  house  of  Spain,  and 
it  seemed  impolitic  to  place  the  supreme  power  in  the 
hands  of  a  man  to  whom  the  idea  might  occur  of  reveng- 
ing- on  the  son  of  the  oppressor  the  oppression  of  his 
an^cestor.  The  slight  put  on  their  favorites  could  give  no 
just  offence  either  to  the  nation  or  to  themselves,  for  it 
might  be  pretended  that  the  king  passed  over  both  be- 
cause he  would  not  show  a  preference  to  either. 

The  disappointment  of  his  hopes  of  gaining  the  regency 
did  not  deprive  the  Prince  of  Orange  of  all  expectation 
of  establishing  more  firmly  his  influence  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Among  the  other  candidates  for  this  office  was 
also  Christina,  Duchess  of  Lorraine,  and  aunt  of  the  king, 
who,  as  mediatrix  of  the  peace  of  Chateau-Cambray,  had 
rendered  important  service  to  the  crown.  William  aimed 
at  the  hand  of  her  daughter,  and  he  hoped  to  promote  his 
suit  by  actively  interposing  his  good  offices  for  the  mother; 
but  he  did  not  reflect  that  through  this  very  intercession 
he  ruined  her  cause.  The  Duchess  Christina  was  rejected, 
not  so  much  for  the  reason  alleged,  namely,  the  dependence 
of  her  territories  on  France  made  her  an  object  of  sus- 
picion to  the  Spanish  court,  as  because  she  was  acceptable  to 
the  people  of  the  Netherlands  and  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

MARGARET  OF  PARMA  REGENT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

While  the  general  expectation  was  on  the  stretch  as  to 
whom  the  future  destines  of  the  provinces  would  be  com- 
mitted, there  appeared  on  the  frontiers  of  the  country  the 
Duchess  Margaret  of  Parma,  having  been  summoned  by 
the  king  from  Italy  to  assume  the  government. 

Margaret  was  a  natural  daughter  of  Charles  V.  and  of 
a  noble  Flemish  lady  named  Vangeest,  and  born  in  1522. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  73 

Out  of  regard  for  the  honor  of  her  mother's  house  she 
Avas  at  first  educated  in  obscurity ;  but  her  mother,  who 
possessed  more  vanity  than  honor,  was  not  very  anxious  to 
preserve  the  secret  of  her  origin,  and  a  princely  education 
betrayed  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor.    Wliile  yet  a  child 
she  was  entrusted  to  the  Regent  Margaret,  lier  great-annt, 
to  be  brought  up  at  Brussels  under  her  eye.    This  guardian 
she  lost  in  her  eighth  year,  and  the  care  of  her  education 
devolved  on  Queen  Mary  of   Hungary,  the  successor  of 
Margaret  in  the  regency.   Her  father  had  already  affianced 
her,  while  yet  in  her  fourth  year,  to  a  Prince  of  Ferrara ; 
but  this  alliance  being  subsequently   dissolved,  she  was 
betrothed   to  Alexander  de   Medicis,   the  new  Duke  of 
Florence,  which  marriage  was,  after  the  victorious  return 
of  the  Emperor  from  Africa,    actually   consummated  in 
Naples.     In  the  first  year  of    this  unfortunate  union,  a 
violent  death  removed  from  her  a  husband  who  could  not 
love  her,  and  for  the  third  time  her  hand  was  disposed  of 
to  serve  the  policy  of  her   father.     Octavius  Farnese,  a 
prince  of  thirteen  years  of  age  and  nephew  of  Paul  III., 
obtained,  with  her  person,  the    Duchies  of  Parma  and 
Piacenza  as  her  portion.     Thus,    by  a  strange  destiny, 
Margaret  at  the  age  of    maturity    was    contracted  to  a 
'boy,  as  in  the  years  of   infancy  she  had  been  sold  to 
a  man.   Her  disposition,  which  was  anything  but  femmme, 
made  this  last  alliance  still  more   unnatural,  for  her  taste 
and  inclinations  were  masculine,  and  the  whole  tenor  of 
her   life  belied   her  sex.     After  the   example  of   her  in- 
structress, the   Queen  of  Hungary,    and  her  great-aunt, 
the  Duchess  Mary  of  Burgundy,  who  met  her  death  m 
this  favorite  sport,  she  was  passionately  fond  of  hunting, 
and  had  acquired  in  this  pursuit  such  bodily  vigor  that 
few  men  were  better  able  to  undergo   its  hardships  and 
fatigues. 

Her  gait  itself  was  so  devoid  of  grace  that  one  was  lar 
more  tempted  to  take  her  for  a  disguised  man  than  for  a 
masculine  woman ;  and  Nature,  whom  she*  had  derided 
by  thus  transgressing  the  limits  of  her  sex,  revenged  itself 
finally  upon  her  by  a  disease  peculiar  to  men  —  the  gout. 
These  unusual  qualities  were  crowned  by  a  monkish 
superstition  which  was  infused  into  her  mind  by  Ignatius 


74  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

Loyola,  her  confessor  and  teacher.  Among  the  charita,ble 
Avorks  and  penances  with  which  she  mortified  her  vanity, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  was  that,  during  Passion-Week 
she  yearly  washed,  with  her  own  liands,  the  feet  of  a  num- 
ber of  poor  men  (who  were  most  strictly  forbidden  to 
cleanse  themselves  beforehand),  waited  on  them  at  table 
like  a  servant,  and  sent  them  away  with  rich  presents. 

Nothing  more  is  requisite  than  this  last  feature  in  her 
character^'to  account  for  the  preference  which  the  king 
gave  her  over  all  her  rivals ;  but  his  choice  was  at  the 
same  time  justified  by  excellent  reasons  of  state.  Marga- 
ret was  born  and  also  educated  in  the  Netherlands.  She 
had  spent  her  early  youth  among  the  people,  and  had  ac- 
quired much  of  their  national  manners.  Two  regents 
(Duchess  Margaret  and  Queen  Mary  of  Hungary),  nnder 
whose  eyes  she  had  grown  up,  had  gradually  initiated  her 
into  the  maxims  by  which  this  peculiar  people  might  be 
most  easily  governed ;  and  they  would  also  serve  her  as 
models.  She  did  not  want  either  in  talents ;  and  pos- 
sessed, moreover,  a  particular  turn  for  business,  which  she 
had  acquired  from  her  instructors,  and  had  afterwards 
carried  to  greater  perfection  in  tlie  Italian  school.  The 
Netherlands  had  been  for  a  number  of  years  accustomed 
to  female  government;  and  Philip  hoped,  perhaps,  that ' 
the  sharp  iron  of  tyranny  which  he  was  about  to  use 
against  them  would  cut  more  gently  if  wielded  by  the 
hands  of  a  woman.  Some  regard  for  his  father,  who  at 
the  time  was  still  living,  and  was  much  attached  to  Mar- 
garet, may  have  in  a  measure,  as  it  is  asserted,  influenced 
this  choice ;  as  it  is  also  probable  that  the  king  wished  to 
oblige  the  Duke  of  Parma,  through  this  mark  of  attention 
to  his  wife,  and  thus  to  compensate  for  denying  a  request 
which  he  was  just  then  compelled  to  refuse  him.  As  the 
territories  of  the  duchess  were  surrounded  by  Philip's 
Italian  states,  and  at  all  times  exposed  to  his  arms,  he 
could,  with  the  less  danger,  entrust  the  supreme  power 
into  her  han4s.  For  his  full  security  her  son,  Alexander 
Farnese,  was  to  remain  at  his  court  as  a  pledge  for  lier 
loyalty.  All  these  reasons  were  alone  sufficiently  weighty 
to  turn  the  king's  decision  in  her  favor;  but  they  became 
irresistible  when  supported  by  the  Bishop  of  Arras  and 


REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS.  75 

the  Duke  of  Alva.  The  latter,  as  it  appears,  because  he 
hated  or  envied  all  the  other  competitors;  the  former, 
because  even  then,  in  all  probability,  he  anticipated  from 
the  wavering  disposition  of  this  princess  abundant  grati- 
fication for  his  ambition. 

Philip  received  the  new  regent  on  the  frontiers  with  a 
splendid  cortege,  and  conducted  her  with  magnificent 
pomp  to  Ghent,  where  the  States  General  had  been  con- 
voked. As  he  did  not  intend  to  return  soon  to  the 
Netherlands,  he  desired,  before  he  left  them,  to  gratify 
the  nation  for  once  by  holding  a  solemn  Diet,  and  thus 
o-iving  a  solemn  sanction  and  the  force  of  law  to  his  pre- 
vious regulations.  For  the  last  time  he  showed  himself 
to  his  Netherlandish  people,  whose  destinies  were  from 
henceforth  to  be  dispensed  from  a  mysterious  distance. 
To  enhance  the  splendor  of  this  solemn  day,  Philip 
invested  eleven  knights  with  the  Order  of  the  Golden 
Fleece,  his  sister  being  seated  on  a  chair  near  himself, 
while  he  showed  her  to  the  nation  as  their  future  ruler. 
All  the  grievances  of  the  people,  touching  the  edicts,  the 
Inquisition,  the  detention  of  the  Spanish  troops,  the 
taxes,  and  the  illegal  introduction  of  foreigners  into  the 
offices  and  administration  of  the  country  were  brought 
forward  in  this  Diet,  and  were  hotly  discussed  by  both 
parties ;  some  of  them  Avere  skilfully  evaded,  or  appar- 
ently removed,  others  arbitrarily  repelled.  As  the  king 
was  unacquainted  with  the  language  of  the  country,  he 
addressed  the  nation  through  the  mouth  of  the  Bishop  of 
Arras,  recounted  to  them  witli  vain-glorious  ostentation 
all  the  benefits  of  his  government,  assured  them  of  his 
favor  for  the  future,  and  once  more  recommended  to  the 
estates  in  the  most  earnest  manner  the  preservation  of 
the  Catholic  faith  and  the  extirpation  of  heresy.  The 
Spanish  troops,  he  promised,  should  in  a  few  months 
evacuate  the  Netherlands,  if  only  they  would  allow  him 
time  to  recover  from  the  numerous  burdens  of  the  last 
war,  in  order  that  he  might  be  enabled  to  collect  the 
means  for  paying  the  arrears  of  these  troops ;  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  "the  nation  should  remain  inviolate,  the 
imposts  should  not  be  grievously  burdensome,  and  the 
Inquisition  should  administer  its  duties  with  justice  and 


76  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

moderation.  In  the  clioice  of  a  supreme  Stadtholder,  he 
added,  lie  had  esj3ecially  consulted  the  wishes  of  the 
nation,  and  had  decided  for  a  native  of  the  country,  who 
had  been  bronglit  uj>  in  their  manners  and  customs,  and 
was  attached  to  them  by  a  love  to  her  native  land.  He 
exhorted  them,  therefore,  to  show  their  gratitude  by 
honoring  his  choice,  and'  obeying  his  sister,  the  duchess, 
as  himself.  Should,  he  concluded,  unexpected  obstacles 
oppose  his  return,  he  would  send  in  his  place  his  son, 
Prince  Charles,  who  should  I'eside  in  Brussels. 

A  few  members  of  this  assembly,  more  coiirageous 
than  tlie  rest,  once  more  ventured  on  a  final  effort  for 
liberty  of  conscience.  Every  people,  they  argued,  ought 
to  be  treated  according  to  their  natural  cliaracter,  as 
every  individual  must  in  accordance  to  his  bodily  consti- 
tution. Thus,  for  example,  the  south  may  be  considered 
happy  under  a  certain  degree  of  constraint  which  would 
press  intolerably  on  the  north.  Never,  they  added, 
would  the  Flemings  consent  to  a  yoke  under  Avhich,  per- 
haps, the  Spaniards  bowed  with  patience,  and  ratlier  than 
submit  to  it  would  they  undergo  any  extremity  if  it  was 
sought  to  force  such  a  yoke  upon  them.  This  remon- 
strance was  supported  by  some  of  the  king's  counsellors, 
who  strongly  urged  the  policy  of  mitigating  tlie  rigor  of 
religious  edicts.  But  Philip  remained  inexorable.  Bet- 
ter not  reign  at  all,  was  his  answer,  than  reign  over 
heretics ! 

According  to  an  arrangement  already  made  by  Charles 
v.,  three  councils  or  chambers  were  added  to  the  regent, 
to  assist  her  in  the  administration  of  state  affairs.  As 
long  as  Philip  was  himself  present  in  the  Netherlands 
these  courts  had  lost  much  of  their  power,  and  the  func- 
tions of  the  first  of  them,  the  state  council,  were  almost 
entirely  suspended.  Now  that  he  (juitted  the  reins  of 
government,  they  recovered  their  former  importance.  In 
the  state  council,  which  was  to  deliberate  upon  Avar  and 
peace,  and  security  against  external  foes,  sat  the  Bishop 
of  Arras,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  Count  Egmont,  the 
President  of  the  Privy  Council,  Viglius  Van  Zuichem 
Van  Aytta,  and  the  Count  of  Barlaimont,  President  of 
the   Chamber   of   Finance.     All  knights  of   the  Golden 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  77 

Fleece,  all  privy  counsellors  and  counsellors  of  finance, 
as  also  the  members  of  the  great  senate  at  Malines, 
which  had  been  subjected  by  Charles  V.  to  the  Privy 
Council  in  Brussels,  had  a  seat  and  vote  in  the  Council  of 
State,  if  expressly  invited  by  the  regent.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  royal  revenues  and  crown  lands  was  vested 
in  the  Chamber  of  Finance,  and  the  Privy  Council  was 
occupied  with  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the  civil 
regulation  of  the  country,  and  issued  all  letters  of  grace 
and  pardon.  The  govei*nments  of  the  provinces  which 
had  fallen  vacant  were  either  filled  up  afresh  or  the  for- 
mer governors  were  confirmed.  Count  Egmont  received 
Flanders  and  Artois ;  the  Prince  of  Orange,  Holland, 
Zealand,  Utrecht,  and  West  Friesland ;  the  Count  of 
Areinberg,  East  Friesland,  Overyssel,  and  Groningen ; 
the  Count  of  Mansfeld,  Luxemburg;  Bai'laimont,  Namur; 
the  Marquis  of  Bergen,  Hainault,  Chateau-Cambray,  and 
Valenciennes ;  the  Baron  of  Montigny,  Tournay  and  its 
dependencies.  Other  provinces  were  given  to  some  who 
have  less  claim  to  our  attention.  Philip  of  Montmo- 
rency, Count  of  Hoorn,  Avho  had  been  succeeded  by  the 
Count  of  Mesjen  in  the  sfovernment  of  Gueldres  and  Ztit- 
phen,  was  confirmed  as  admiral  of  the  Belgian  navy. 
Every  governor  of  a  province  was  at  the  same  time  a 
knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece  and  member  of  the  Council 
of  State.  Each  had,  in  the  province  over  which  he  pre- 
sided, the  command  of  the  military  force  which  protected 
it,  the  superintendence  of  the  civil  administration  and 
the  judicature  ;  the  governor  of  Flanders  alone  excepted, 
who  was  not  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  administration 
of  justice.  Brabant  alone  was  placed  under  the  imme- 
diate jurisdiction  of  the  regent,  who,  according  to  cus- 
tom, chose  Brussels  for  her  constant  residence.  The 
induction  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  into  his  governments 
was,  properly  speaking,  an  infraction  of  the  constitution, 
since  he  was  a  foreigner;  but  several  estates  Avhich  he 
either  himself  possessed  in  the  provinces,  or  managed  as 
guardian  of  his  son,  his  long  residence  in  the  country, 
and  above  all  the  unlimited  confidence  the  nation  reposed 
in  him,  gave  him  substantial  claims  in  default  of  a  real 
title  of  citizenship. 


78  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

The  military  force  of  the  Low  Countries  consisted,  in 
its  full  complement,  of  three  thousand  horse.  At  pres- 
ent it  did  not  much  exceed  two  thousand,  and  was  di- 
vided into  fourteen  squadrons,  over  which,  besides  the 
governors  of  the  provinces,  the  Duke  of  Arschot,  the 
Counts  of  Hoogstraten,  Bossu,  Roeux,  and  Brederode 
held  the  chief  command.  This  cavalry,  which  was  scat- 
tered through  all  the  seventeen  provinces,  was  only  to  be 
called  out  on  sudden  emergencies.  Insufficient  as  it  was 
for  any  great  undertaking,  it  was,  nevertheless,  fully  ad- 
equate for  the  maintenance  of  internal  order.  Its  cour- 
age had  been  approved  in  former  wars,  and  the  fame  of 
its  valor  was  diffused  through  the  whole  of  Europe.  In 
addition  to  this  cavalry  it  was  also  proposed  to  levy  a 
body  of  infantry,  but  hitherto  the  states  had  refused 
their  consent  to  it.  Of  foreign  troops  there  were  still 
some  German  regiments  in  the  service,  which  were  wait- 
ing for  their  pay.  The  four  thousand  Spaniards,  respect- 
ing whom  so  many  complaints  had  been  made,  were 
under  two  Spanish  generals,  Mendoza  and  Romero,  and 
were  in  garrison  in  the  frontier  towns. 

Among  the  Belgian  nobles  whom  the  king  especially 
distinguished  in  these  new  appointments,  the  names  of 
Count  Egmont  and  William  of  Orange  stand  conspicuous. 
However  inveterate  his  hatred  was  of  both,  and  particu- 
larly of  the  latter,  Philip  nevertheless  gave  them  these 
public  marks  of  his  favor,  because  his  scheme  of  ven- 
geance was  not  yet  fully  ripe,  and  the  people  were  enthu- 
siastic in  their  devotion  to  them.  The  estates  of  both 
were  declared  exempt  from  taxes,  the  most  lucrative 
governments  were  entrusted  to  them,  and  by  offering 
them  the  command  of  the  Spaniards  whom  he  left  behind 
in  the  country  the  king  flattered  them  with  a  confidence 
which  he  was  very  far  from  really  reposing  in  them.  But 
at  the  very  time  when  he  obliged  the  prince  with  these 
public  marks  of  his  esteem  he  privately  inflicted  the  most 
cruel  injury  on  him.  Apprehensive  lest  an  alliance  with 
the  powerful  house  of  Lorraine  might  encourage  this 
suspected  vassal  to  bolder  measures,  he  thwarted  the 
negotiation  for  a  marriage  between  him  and  a  princess  of 
that  family,  and  crushed  his  hopes  on  the  very  eve  of 


REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS.  79 

their  accomplishment,  —  an  injury  which  tlie  prince  never 
forgave.  Nay,  his  hatred  to  the  prince  on  one  occasion 
even  got  completely  the  better  of  his  natural  dissimula- 
tion, and  seduced  hirn  into  a  step  in  which  we  entirely 
lose  sight  of  Philip  II.  When  he  was  about  to  embark 
at  Flushing,  and  the  nobles  of  the  country  attended  him 
to  tlie  shore,  he  so  far  forgot  himself  as  roughly  to  accost 
the  prince,  and  openly  to  accuse  him  of  being  the  author 
of  the  Flemish  troubles.  The  prince  answered  tem- 
perately that  what  had  happened  had  been  done  by  the 
provinces  of  their  own  suggestion  and  on  legitimate 
grounds.  No,  said  Philip,  seizing  his  hand,  and  shaking 
it  violently,  not  the  provinces,  but  You !  You !  You ! 
The  prince  stood  mute  with  astonishment,  and  without 
"waiting  for  the  king's  embarkation,  wished  him  a  safe 
journey,  and  went  back  to  the  town. 

Thus  the  enmity  which  William  had  long  harbored  in 
his  breast  against  the  oppressor  of  a  free  people  was  now 
rendered,  irreconcilable  by  private  hatred;  and  this 
double  incentive  accelerated  the  great  enterprise  which 
tore  from  the  Spanish  croAvn  seven  of  its  brightest 
jewels. 

Philip  had  greatly  deviated  from  his  true  character  in 
taking  so  gracious  a  leave  of  the  Netherlands.  The  legal 
form  of  a  diet,  his  promise  to  remove  the  Spaniards  from 
the  frontiers,  the  consideration  of  the  popular  wislies, 
which  had  led  him  to  fill  the  most  important  offices  of  the 
country  with  the  favorites  of  the  people,  and,  finally,  tlie 
sacrifice  which  he  made  to  the  constitution  in  withdraw- 
ing the  Count  of  Feria  from  the  council  of  state,  were 
marks  of  condescension  of  which  his  magnanimity  Avas 
never  again  guilty.  But  in  fact  he  never  stood  in  greater 
need  of  the  good-Avill  of  the  states,  that  with  their  aid  he 
might,  if  possible,  clear  off  the  great  burden  of  debt 
which  was  still  attached  to  the  Netherlands  from  the 
former  war.  He  hoped,  therefore,  by  propitiating  them 
through  smaller  sacrifices  to  win  approval  of  more  im- 
portant usurpations.  He  marked  his  departure  with 
grace,  for  he  knew  in  what  hands  he  left  them.  The 
frightful  scenes  of  death  which  he  intended  for  this 
unhappy  people  were  not  to  stain  the  splendor  of  majesty 


80  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

which,  like  tlie  Godhead,  marks  its  course  only  with 
beneticence;  that  terrible  distinction  was  reserved  for 
his  representatives.  Tlie  estabiislinient  of  the  council  of 
state  was,  however,  intended  rather  to  flatter  the  vanity 
of  the  Belgian  nobility  than  to  impart  to  them  any  real 
influence.  The  historian  Strada  (who  drew  his  informa- 
tion with  regard  to  the  regent  from  her  own  papers)  has 
preserved  a  few  articles  of  the  secret  instructions  which 
the  Spanish  ministry  gave  her.  Amongst  other  things  it 
is  there  stated  if  she  observed  that  the  councils  were 
divided  by  factions,  or,  what  would  be  far  worse,  pre- 
pared by  private  conferences  before  the  session,  and  in 
league  with  one  another,  then  she  was  to  prorogue  all 
the  chambers  and  dispose  arbitrarily  of  the  disputed 
articles  in  a  more  select  council  or  committee.  In  this 
select  committee,  whicli  was  called  the  Consulta,  sat  the 
Archbishop  of  Arras,  the  President  Viglius,  and  the  Count 
of  Barlaimont.  She  was  to  act  in  the  same  manner  if 
emergent  cases  required  a  prompt  decision.  Had  this 
arrangement  not  been  the  work  of  an  arbitrary  despotism 
it  would  perhaps  have  been  justified  by  sound  policy,  and 
republican  liberty  itself  might  have  tolerated  it.  In  great 
assemblies  where  many  private  interests  an^l  passions 
co-operate,  where  a  numerous  audience  presents  so  great 
a  temptation  to  the  vanity  of  the  orator,  and  parties  often 
assail  one  another  with  unmannerly  warmth,  a  decree  can 
seldom  be  passed  with  that  sobriety  and  mature  delibera- 
tion which,  if  the  members  are  properly  selected,  a  smaller 
body  readily  admits  of.  In  a  numerous  body  of  men, 
too,  there  is,  we  must  suppose,  a  greater  number  of  limited 
than  of  enlightened  intellects,  who  through  their  equal  right 
of  vote  frequently  turn  the  majority  on  the  side  of  ignor- 
ance. A  second  maxim  which  the  regent  was  especially 
to  observe,  was  to  select  the  very  members  of  council 
who  had  voted  against  any  decree  to  carry  it  into  execu- 
tion. By  this  means  not  only  would  the  people  be  kept 
in  ignorance  of  the  originators  of  such  a  law,  but  the 
private  quarrels  also  of  the  members  would  be  restrained, 
and  a  greater  freedom  insured  in  voting  in  compliance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  court. 

In  spite  of  all  these  precautions  Philip  would  never  have 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  81 

been  able  to  leave  the  Netherlands  with  a  quiet  mind  so 
long  as  he  knew  that  the  chief  power  in  the  council  of 
state,  and  the  obedience  of  the  provinces,  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  suspected  nobles.  In  order,  tlierefore,  to 
appease  his  fears  from  this  quarter,  and  also  at  the  same 
time  to  assure  himself  of  the  fidelity  of  the  regent,  he 
subjected  her,  and  through  her  all  the  affairs  of  the  judi- 
cature, to  the  higher  control  of  the  Bishop  of  Arras.  In 
this  single  individual  he  possessed  an  adequate  counter- 
poise to  the  most  dreaded  cabal.  To  him,  as  to  an 
infallible  oracle  of  majesty,  the  duchess  was  referred,  and 
in  him  there  watched  a  stern  supervisor  of  her  adminis- 
tration. Among  all  his  contemporaries  Granvella  was 
the  only  one  whom  Philip  II.  appears  to  have  excepted 
from  his  universal  distrust ;  as  long  as  he  knew  that  this 
man  was  in  Brussels  he  could  sleep  calmly  in  Segovia. 
He  left  the  Netherlands  in  September,  1559,  was  saved 
from  a  storm  which  sank  his  fleet,  and  landed  at  Laredo 
in  Biscay,  and  in  his  gloomy  joy  thanked  the  Deity  who 
had  preserved  him  by  a  detestable  vow.  In  the  hands 
of  a  priest  and  of  a  woman  was  placed  the  dangerous 
helm  of  the  Netherlands ;  and  the  dastardly  tyrant 
escaped  in  his  oratory  at  Madrid  the  supplications,  the 
complaints,  and  the  curses  of  the  people. 


BOOK  II. 

CARDINAL  GRA^TVELLA. 

Anthoistt  Perenot,  Bishop  of  Arrns,  subsequently 
Archbishop  of  Malines,  and  Metropolitan  of  all  the 
Netherlands,  who,  under  the  name  of  Cardinal  Granvella, 
has  been  immortalized  by  the  hatred  of  his  contem- 
poraries, was  born  in  the  year  1516,  at  Besancon  in  Bur- 
gundy. His  father,  Nicolaus  Perenot,  the  son  of  a  black- 
smith, had  risen  by  his  own  merits  to  be  the  private 
secretary  of  Margaret,  Duchess  of  Savoy,  at  that  time 
regent  of  the  Netherlands.     In  this  post  he  was  noticed 


82  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEKLANDS. 

for  his  habits  of  business  by  Charles  V.,  who  took  him 
into  his  own  service  and  employed  him  in  several  im- 
portant negotiations.  For  twenty  years  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Emperor's  cabinet,  and  filled  the  offices  of  privy 
counsellor  and  keeper  of  the  king's  seal,  and  shared  in  all 
the  state  secrets  of  that  monarch.  He  acquired  a  large 
fortune.  His  honors,  his  influence,  and  his  political 
knowledge  were  inherited  by  his  son,  Anthony  Perenot, 
who  in  his  early  years  gave  proofs  of  the  great  capacity 
which  subsequently  opened  to  him  so  distinguished  a 
cai'eer.  Anthony  had  cultivated  at  several  colleges  the 
talents  with  which  nature  had  so  lavishly  endowed  him, 
and  in  some  respects  had  an  advantage  over  his  father. 
He  soon  showed  that  his  own  abilities  Avere  sufficient  to 
maintain  the  advantageous  position  which  the  merits  of 
another  had  procured  him.  He  was  twenty-four  years 
old  when  the  Emperor  sent  liim  as  his  plenipotentiary  to 
the  ecclesiastical  council  of  Trent,  Avhere  he  delivered  the 
first  specimen  of  that  eloquence  whicli  in  the  sequel  gave 
him  so  complete  an  ascendancy  over  two  kings.  Charles 
em])loyed  him  in  several  difficult  embassies,  the  duties  of 
which  he  fulfilled  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  sovereign,  and 
when  finally  that  Emperor  resigned  the  sceptre  to  his  son 
he  made  that  costly  present  complete  by  giving  him  a 
minister  who  could  help  him  to  Avield  it. 

Granvella  opened  his  new  career  at  once  witli  tlie 
greatest  masterpiece  of  political  genius,  in  passing  so 
easily  from  the  favor  of  such  a  father  into  equal  con- 
sideration with  such  a  son.  And  he  soon  proved  himself 
deserving  of  it.  At  the  secret  negotiations  of  which  the 
Duchess  of  Lorraine  had,  in  1558,  been  the  medium 
between  the  French  and  Spanish  ministers  at  Peronne, 
he  planned,  conjointly  with  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine, 
that  conspiracy  against  the  Protestants  which  was  after- 
wards matured,  but  also  betrtiyed,  at  Chateau-Cambray, 
where  Perenot  likewise  assisted  in  effecting  the  so-called 
peace. 

A  deeply  penetrating,  compreliensive  intellect,  an  un- 
usual facility  in  conducting  great  and  intricate  affairs, 
and  the  most  extensive  learning,  were  wonderfully  united 
in  this  man  with  persevering  industry  and  never- weary- 


EEVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  83 

ing  patience,  while  bis  enterprising  genius  was  associated 
with  thoughtful   mechanical  regularity.      Day  and  night 
the  state  found  him  vigilant  and  collected  ;  the  most  im- 
portant  and    the    most   insignificant   things    were   alike 
weighed  by  him  with  scrupulous  attention.     Not  unfre- 
quently  he  employed   five  secretaries  at  one  time,  dic- 
tating to  them  in  different  languages,  of  which  he  is  said 
to  ha've  spoken  seven.     What  his  penetrating  mind  had 
slowly  matured  acquired   in  his  lips  both  force  and  grace, 
and  truth,  set  forth  by  his  persuasive  eloquence,  irresisti- 
bly carried  away  all  hearers.     He  was  tempted  by  none 
of  the  passions \vhich  make  slaves  of  most  men.     His  in- 
tegrity was  incorruptible.      With  shrewd  penetration  he 
saw  through  the  disposition  of  his  master,  and  could  read 
in  his  features  his  whole  train  of  thought,  and,  as  it  were, 
the  approaching  form  in  the    shadow  which   outran   it. 
With  an  artifice  rich  in  resources   he  came  to  the  aid  of 
Philip's  more  inactive  mind,  formed  into  perfect  thought 
his  master's  crude  ideas  while  they  yet  hung  on  his  lips, 
and   liberally  allowed   him   the  glory  of   the    invention. 
Graavella    understood    the    difiicult    and    useful   art   of 
depreciating  his  own  talents  ;  of  making  his  own  genius 
the  seeming  slave  of  another;  thus  lie  ruled  while  he  con- 
cealed his  sway.     In  this  manner  only    could  Philip  II. 
be  governed.     Content    with    a    silent    but   real   power, 
Granvella  did  not  grasp  insatiably  at   new  and  outward 
marks  of  it,  which  with  lesser  minds    are  ever  tlie  most 
coveted  objects;  but  every  new  distinction  seemed  to  sit 
upon  him  as  easily  as  the  oldest.     No  wonder  if  such  ex- 
traordinary endowments  had  alone  gained  him  the  favor 
of  his  master ;  but  a  large  and  valuable  treasure  of  politi- 
cal   secrets   and    experiences,   which    the    active    life    of 
Charles  V".  had  accumulated,  and   had  deposited   in  the 
mind  of  this  man,  made  him  indispensable   to  his  suc- 
cessor.    Self-sufficient  as  the  latter  was,  and  accustomed 
to   confide   in   his    own    understanding,   his    tiniid    and 
crouching  policy  was  fain  to  lean  on  a  superior  mind,  and 
to  aid  its  own  irresolution  not  only  by  precedent  but  also 
by  the  influence   and  example  of  another.     No  political 
matter  which   concerned  the    royal  interest,  even   wlien 
Philip    himself    was   in   the    Netherlands,    was   decided 


84  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETIIEIILANDS. 

without  the  intervention  of  GranveUa;  and  wlien  the 
king  embarked  for  JSpain  he  made  the  new  regent  the 
same  vahiable  present  of  the  minister  which  he  himself 
Lad  received  from  the  Emperor,  his  fatlier. 

Common  as  it  is  for  des])Otic  princes  to  bestow  un- 
limited confidence  on  the  creatures  whom  they  have 
raised  from  the  dust,  and  of  wliose  greatness  they  them- 
selves are,  in  a  measure,  the  creators,  the  present  is  no 
ordinary  instance ;  pre-eminent  must  liave  been  tlie  qual- 
ities which  could  so  far  conquer  the  selfish  reserve  of 
such  a  character  as  Philip's  as  to  gain  his  confidence, 
nay,  even  to  ^vm  him  into  familiarity.  The  slightest 
ebullition  of  the  most  allowable  self-resiDCct,  which  might 
have  tempted  him  to  assert,  however  slightly,  his  claim 
to  any  idea  which  the  king  had  once  ennobled  as  his  own, 
would  have  cost  him   his  whole  influence.      He  minht 

•  ■  ■  •  ^ 

gratify  without  restraint  the  lowest  passions  of  voluptu- 
ousness, of  rapacity,  and  of  revenge,  but  the  only  one  in 
which  he  really  took  delight,  the  sweet  consciousness  of 
his  own  superiority  and  power,  he  was  constrained  care- 
fully to  conceal  from  the  suspicious  glance  of  the  despot. 
He  voluntarily  disclaimed  all  the  eminent  qualities,  which 
were  already  his  own,  in  order,  as  it  were,  to  receive 
them  a  second  time  from  the  generosity  of  the  king.  His 
happiness  seemed  to  flow  from  no  other  source,  no  other 
person  could  have  a  claim  upon  his  gratitude.  The 
purple,  which  was  sent  to  him  from  Rome,  Avas  not 
assumed  until  the  royal  permission  reached  him  from 
Spain ;  by  laying  it  down  on  the  ste]>s  of  the  throne  he 
appeared,  in  a  measure,  to  receive  it  first  from  the  hands 
of  majesty.  Less  politic,  Alva  erected  a  trophy  in  Ant- 
werp, and  inscribed  his  own  name  under  the  victorv, 
which  he  had  won  as  the  servant  of  the  crown  — but  Alva 
carried  with  him  to  the  grave  the  displeasure  of  his 
master.  He  had  invaded  with  audacious  hand  the  royal 
prerogative  by  drawing  immediately  at  the  fountain  of 
immortality. 

Three  times  Granvella  changed  his  master,  and  three 
times  he  succeeded  in  rising  to  the  highest  favor.  With 
the  same  facility  with  which  ho  had  guided  the  settled 
pride  of  an  autocrat,  and  the  sly  egotism  of  a  des])Ot,  he 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  85 

knew  liow  to  manage  tlie  delicate  vanity  of  a  woman. 
His  business  between  liiniself  and  the  ix'gent,  even  wlien 
they  were  in  tlie  same  liouse,  was,  for  tlie  most  part, 
transacted  by  tlie  medium  of  notes,  a  custom  which  draws 
its  date  from  the  times  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius.  When 
the  regent  was  in  any  perplexity  these  notes  were  intei"- 
changed  from  hour  to  liour.  He  probably  adopted  this 
expedient  in  the  hope  of  eluding  the  watchful  jealousy 
of  the  nobility,  and  concealing  from  them,  in  part  at  least, 
his  influence  over  the  regent.  Perhaps,  too,  he  also 
believed  that  by  this  means  his  advice  Avould  become 
more  permanent ;  and,  in  case  of  need,  this  written  testi- 
money  would  be  at  hand  to  shield  him  from  blame.  But 
the  vigilance  of  the  nobles  made  this  caution  vain,  and  it 
was  soon  known  in  all  the  provinces  that  nothing  was 
determined  upon  without  the  minister's  advice. 

Granvella  possessed  all  the  qualities  requisite  for  a  per- 
fect statesman  in  a  monarchy  governed  by  despotic  ])rinci- 
ples,  but  was  absolutely  unqualifled  for  republics  which  are 
governed  by  kings.  Educated  between  the  throne  and 
the  confessional,  he  knew  of  no  other  relation  between 
man  and  man  than  that  of  rule  and  subjection ;  and  the 
innate  consciousness  of  his  own  superiority  gave  him  a 
contempt  for  others.  His  policy  wanted  pliability,  the 
only  virtue  which  was  here  indispensable  to  its  success. 
He  was  naturally  overbearing  and  insolent,  and  the  royal 
authority  only  gave  arms  to  the  natural  impetuosity  of 
his  disposition  and  the  imperiousness  of  liis  order.  He 
veiled  his  own  ambition  beneath  the  interests  of  the 
crown,  and  made  the  breach  between  the  nation  and  the 
king  incurable,  because  it  would  render  liim  indis))ensab]e 
to  the  latter.  He  revenged  on  the  nobility  the  lowliness 
of  his  own  origin  ;  and,  after  the  fashion  of  all  tliose  who 
have  risen  by  their  own  merits,  he  valued  the  advantages 
of  birth  below  those  by  which  he  had  raised  himself  to 
distinction.  The  Protestants  saw  in  him  their  most  im- 
placable foe ;  to  his  charge  were  laid  all  the  burdens 
which  oppressed  the  country,  and  they  ]ircssed  the  more 
heavily  because  they  came  from  him.  Nay,  he  was  even 
accused  of  liaving  brought  back  to  severity  the  milder 
sentiments    to  which   the    urgent   remonstrances  of  the 


86  EEVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEELANDS. 

provinces  had  at  last  disposed  the  monarch.  The  Nether- 
lands execrated  him  as  the  most  terrible  enemy  of  their 
liberties,  and  the  originator  of  all  the  misery  which  sub- 
sequently came  upon  them. 

1559.  Philip  had  evidently  left  the  provinces  too  soon. 
The  new  measures  of  the  government  were  still  strange 
to  the  people,  and  could  receive  sanction  and  authority 
from  his  presence  alone  ;  the  new  machines  which  he  had 
brought  into  play  required  to  be  kept  in  motion  by  a 
dreaded  and  powerful  hand,  and  to  have  tlieir  first  move- 
ments watched  and  regulated.  He  now  exposed  his 
minister  to  all  the  angry  passions  of  the  people,  who  no 
longer  felt  restrained  by  the  fetters  of  the  royal  presence ; 
and  he  delegated  to  the  weak  arm  of  a  subject  the  execu- 
tion of  projects  in  which  majesty  itself,  with  all  its 
powerful  supports,  might  have  failed. 

The  land,  indeed,  flourished  ;  and  a  general  prosperity 
appeared  to  testify  to  the  blessings  of  the  peace  which 
had  so  lately  been  bestowed  upon  it.  An  external  repose 
deceived  the  eye,  for  within  raged  all  the  elements  of 
discord.  If  the  foundations  of  religion  totter  in  a  country 
they  totter  not  alone ;  the  audacity  which  begins  with 
things  sacred  ends  with  tilings  profane.  The  successful 
attack  upon  the  hierarchy  had  awakened  a  spirit  of  bold- 
ness, and  a  desire  to  assail  authority  in  general,  and  to 
test  laws  as  well  as  dogmas  —  duties  as  well  as  opinions. 
The  fanatical  boldness  Avith  which  men  had  learned  to 
discuss  and  decide  upon  the  affairs  of  eternity  inight 
change  its  subject  matter;  the  contempt  for  life  and 
property  which  religious  enthusiasm  had  taught  could 
metamorphose  timid  citizens  into  foolhardy  rebels.  A 
female  government  of  nearly  forty  years  had  given  the 
nation  room  to  assert  their  liberty;  continual  wars,  of 
which  the  Netherlands  had  been  the  theatre,  had  intro- 
duced a  license  with  them,  and  the  right  of  the  stronger 
had  usurped  the  place  of  law  and  order.  The  provinces 
were  filled  with  foreign  adventurers  and  fugitives  ;  gen- 
erally men  bound  by  no  ties  of  country,  family,  or  prop- 
erty, who  had  brought  Avith  them  from  their  unhappy 
homes  the  seeds  of  insubordination  and  rebellion.  The 
repeated  spectacles  of  torture  and  of  death  had  rudely 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  87 

burst  the  tenderer  threads  of  moral  feeling,  and  had  given 
an  unnatural  harshness  to  the  national  character. 

Still  the  i-ebellion  would  have  crouched  timorously  and 
silently  on  the  ground  if  it  had  not  found  a  support  in 
the  nobility.  Charles  V.  had  spoiled  the  Flemish  nobles 
of  the  Xetlierlaads  by  making  them  the  participators  of 
his  glory,  by  fostering  their  national  pride,  by  the  marked 
preference  he  showed  for  them  over  the  Castilian  nobles, 
and  by  opening  an  arena  to  their  ambition  in  every  part 
of  his  empire.  ^  In  tlie  late  war  with  France  they  had 
really  deserved  this  preference  from  Philip  ;  the  advan- 
tages which  the  king  reaped  from  the  peace  of  Chateau- 
Cambray  were  for  the  most  part  the  fruits  of  their  valor, 
and  they  now  sensibly  missed  the  gratitude  on  which 
they  had  so  confidently  reckoned.  Moreover,  the  separa- 
tion of  the  German  empire  from  the  Spanish  monarcliy, 
and  the  less  warlike  spirit  of  the  new  government,  had 
greatly  narrowed  their  sphere  of  action,  and,  except  in 
their  own  country,  little  remained  for  them  to  gain.  And 
PhiliiJ  now  appointed  his  Spaniards  where  Charles  V. 
had  employed  the  Flemings.  All  the  passions  which  the 
preceding  government  had  raised  and  kept  employed  still 
survived  in  peace  ;  and  in  default  of  a  legitimate  object 
these  unruly  feelings  found,  unfortunately,  ample  scope 
in  the  grievances  of  their  country.  Accordingly,  the 
claims  and  wrongs  which  had  been  long  supi^lanted  by 
new  passions  were  now  drawn  from  oblivion.  By  his 
late  appointments  the  kipg  had  satisfied  no  party  ;  for 
those  even  who  obtainecP  ofiices  were  not  much  more 
content  than  those  who  were  entirely  passed  over^  because 
they  had  calculated  on  something  better  than  they  got. 
William  of  Orange  had  received  four  governments  (not 
to  reckon  some  smaller  dependencies  which,  taken  to- 
gether, were  equivalent  to  a  fifth),  but  William  had 
nourished  hopes  of  Flanders  and  Brabant.  He  and  Count 
Egmont  forgot  what  had  really  fallen  to  their  share,  and 
only  remembered  that  they  had  lost  the  regency.  The 
majority  of  the  nobles  were  either  plunged  into  debt  by 
their  own  extravagance,  or  had  willingly  enough  been 
drawn  into  it  by  the  government.  Now  that  they  were 
excluded  from   the  prospect  of    lucrative  appointments, 


88  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHEELANDS. 

they  at  once  saw  themselves  exposed  to  poverty,  which 
pained  them  tlie  more  sensibly  when  they  contrasted  the 
splendor  of  the  affluent  citizens  with  their  own  neces- 
sities. In  the  extremities  to  which  they  were  reduced 
many  would  have  readily  assisted  in  the  commission  even 
of  crimes  ;  how  then  could  they  resist  the  seductive  offers 
of  the  Calvinists,  who  liberally  repaid  them  for  their 
intercession  and  protection  ?  Lastly,  many  whose  estates 
were  past  redemption  placed  their  last  hope  in  a  general 
devastation,  and  stood  p]-ei)ared  at  the  first  favorable 
moment  to  cast  the  torch  of  discord  into  the  republic. 

This  threatening  aspect  of  the  public  mind  was  ren- 
dered still  more  alarming  by  the  unfortunate  vicinity  of 
France.  What  Philii)  dreaded  for  the  provinces  was 
there  already  accomplished.  The  fate  of  that  kingdom 
prefigured  to  him  the  destiny  of  his  Netherlands,  and 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  found  there  a  seductive  example. 
A  similar  state  of  things  had  under  Francis  I.  and  Henry 
II.  scattered  the  seeds  of  innovation  in  tliat  kingdom  ;  a 
similar  fury  of  persecution  and  a  like  spirit  of  faction 
had  encouraged  its  growth.  Now  Huguenots  and  Cath- 
olics were  struggling  in  a  dubious  contest ;  furious  parties 
disorganized  the  whole  monarchy,  and  were  violently 
hurrying  this  once-powerful  state  to  the  brink  _  of 
destruction.  Here,  as  there,  private  interest,  ambition, 
and  party  feeling  might  veil  themselves  under  the  names 
of  religion  and  patriotism,  and  the  passions  of  a  few 
citizens  drive  the  entire  nation  to  take  up  arms.  The 
frontiers  of  both  countries  merged  in  Walloon  Flanders  ; 
the  rebellion  might,  like  an  agitated  sea,  cast  its  waves  as 
far  as  this  :  would  a  country  be  closed  against  it  whose 
language,  manners,  and  character  wavered  between  those 
of  France  and  Belgium  ?  As  yet  the  government  had 
taken  no  census  of  its  Protestant  subjects  in  these  coun- 
tries, but  the  new  sect,  it  was  aware,  was  a  vast,  compact 
republic,  which  extended  its  roots  through  all  the  mon- 
archies of  Christendom,  and  the  slighest  disturbance  in 
any  of  its  most  distant  members  vibrated  to  its  centre. 
It  was,  as  it  were,  a  chain  of  threatening  volcanoes, 
which,  united  by  subterraneous  passages,  ignite  at  the 
same  moment  with  alarming  sympathy.    The  Netherlands 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  89 

were,  necessarily,  open  to  all  nations,  because  they  derived 
their'  support  from  all.  Was  it  possible  for^Fhilip  to 
close  a  commercial  state  as  easily  as  he  could  Spain  ?  If 
he  wished  to  purify  these  provinces  from  heresy  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  commence  by  extirpating  it  in 

France. 

It  Avas  in  this  state  that  Granvella  found  the  Nether- 
lands at  the  beginning-  of  his  administration  (1560). _ 

To  restore  to  these  countries  the  uniformity  of  papistry, 
to  break  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  nobility  and  the 
states,  and  to  exalt  the  royal  authority  on  the  ruinsof 
republican  freedom,  was  the  great  object  of  Spanish  policy 
and  the  express  commission  of  the  new  minister.  But 
obstacles  stood  in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment ;  to 
conquer  these  demanded  the  invention  of  new  resources, 
the  application  of  new  machinery.  The  Inquisition, 
indeed,  and  the  religious  edicts  appeared  sufficient  to 
check  the  contagion  of  heresy ;  but  the  latter  required 
superintendence,  and  the  former  able  instruments  for  its 
now  extended  jurisdiction.  The  church  constitution  con- 
tinued the  same  as  it  had  been  in  earlier  titnes,  when  the 
provinces  were  less  populous,  when  the  church  still  enjoyed 
universal  repose,  and  could  be  more  easily  overlooked  and 
controlled.  A  succession  of  several  centuries,  which 
changed  the  whole  interior  form  of  the  provinces,  had 
left  the  form  of  the  hierarchy  unaltered,  which,  moreover, 
was  protected  from  the  arbitrary  will  of  its  ruler  by  the 
particular  privileges  of  the  provinces.  All  the  seventeen 
provinces  were  parcelled  out  under  four  bishops,  who  had 
their  seats  at  Arras,  Tournay,  Cambray,  and  IJtrecht,  and 
were  subject  to  the  primates  of  Rheims  and  Cologne. 
Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  had,  indeed,  medi- 
tated an  increase  in  the  number  of  bishops  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  increasing  population  ;  but,  unfortunately, 
in  the  excitement  of  a  life  of  pleasure  had  abandoned 
the  project.  Ambition  and  lust  of  conquest  withdrew 
the  mind  of  Charles  the  Bold  from  the  internal  concerns 
of  his  kingdom,  and  Maximilian  had  already  too  many 
subjects  of  dispute  with  the  states  to  venture  to  add  to 
tlieir  number  by  proposing  this  change.  A  stormy  reign 
prevented  Charles  V.  from  the  execution   of  this  extens- 


90  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

ive  plan,  which  Philip  II.  now  undertook  as  a  bequest 
from  all  these  princes.  The  moment  had  now  arrived 
when  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  church  would  excuse 
the  innovation,  and  the  leisure  of  peace  favored  its 
accomplishment.  With  the  prodigious  crowd  of  people 
from  all  the  countries  of  Europe  who  were  crowded 
together  in  the  towns  of  the  Netherlands,  a  multitude  of 
religious  opinions  had  also'grown  up  ;  and  it  was  impos- 
sible that  religion  could  any  longer  be  effectually  super- 
intended by  so  few  eyes  as  were  formerly  sufficient. 
While  the  number  of  bishojjs  was  so  small  their  districts 
must,  of  necessity,  have  been  proportionally  extensive, 
and  four  men  could  not  be  adequate  to  maintain  the 
purity  of  the  faith  through  so  wide  a  district. 

The  jurisdiction  which  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne  and 
Rheims  exercised  over  the  Netherlands  had  long  been  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  government,  which  could  not  look 
on  this  territory  as  really  its  own  pi-operty  so  long  as 
such  an  im])ortant  branch  of  power  was  still  wielded  by 
foreign  hands.  To  snatch  this  prerogative  from  the  alien 
archbishops ;  by  new  and  active  agents  to  give  fresh  life 
and  vigor  to  the  superintendence  of  the  faith,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  strengthen  the  number  of  the  partisans 
of  government  at  the  diet,  no  more  effectual  means  could 
be  devised  than  to  increase  the  number  of  bishops. 
Resolved  upon  doing  this  Philip  II.  ascended  the  throne  ; 
but  he  soon  found  that  a  change  in  the  hierarchy  would 
inevitably  meet  with  warm  opposition  from  the  provinces, 
without  whose  consent,  nevertheless,  it  would  be  vain  to 
attempt  it.  Philip  foresaw  that  the  nobility  would  never 
nj^prove  of  a  measure  which  would  so  strongly  augment 
tiie  royal  party,  and  take  from  the  aristocracy  the  pre- 
}ionderance  of  power  in  the  diet.  The  revenues,  too,  for 
the  maintenance  of  these  new  bishops  must  be  diverted 
from  the  abbots  and  monks,  and  these  formed  a  consider- 
able yiart  of  the  states  of  the  realm.  He  had,  besides,  to 
fear  the  opposition  of  the  Protestants,  who  would  not 
fail  to  act  secretly  in  the  diet  against  him.  On  these 
accounts  the  whole  affair  w^as  discussed  at  Rome  with  the 
greatest  possible  secrecy.  Instructed  by,  and  as  the  agent 
of,  Grauvella,  Francis  Sonnoi,  a  priest  of  Louvain,  came 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  91 

before  Paul  TV.  to  inform  Lim  how  extensive  the  j^rov- 
inces  were,  how  tliriving  and  populous,  how  luxurious  in 
their  prosperity.  But,  he  continued,  in  the  immoderate 
enjoyment  of  liberty  the  true  faith  is  neglected,  and 
heretics  prosper.  To  obviate  this  evil  the  Romish  See 
must  have  recourse  to  extraordinary  measures.  It  was 
not  difficult  to  prevail  on  the  Romish  pontiff  to  make  a 
change  which  would  enlarge  the  sj there  of  his  own  juris- 
diction. 

Paul  IV.  appointed  a  tribunal  of  seven  cardinals  to 
deliberate  upon  this  important  matter ;  but  death  called 
him  away,  and  he  left  to  his  successor,  Pius  IV.,  the 
duty  of  carrying  their  advice  into  execution.  The  wel- 
come tidings  of  the  pope's  determination  reached  the 
king  in  Zealand  when  he  was  just  on  the  point  of  setting 
sail  for  Spain,  and  the  minister  was  secretly  charged  with 
the  dangerous  reform.  The  new  constitution  of  the 
hierarchy  was  published  in  1560  ;  in  addition  to  the  then 
existing  four  bishoprics  thirteen  new  ones  were  estab- 
lished, according  to  the  number  of  seventeen  provinces, 
and  four  of  them  were  raised  into  archbishopi'ics.  Six  of 
thesee  piscopal  sees,  viz.,  in  Antwerp,  Herzogenbusch, 
Ghent,  Bruges,  Ypres,  and  Ruremonde,  were  placed 
under  the  Archbishopric  of  Malines  ;  five  others,  Haarlem, 
Middelburg,  Leuwarden,  Deventer,  and  Groningen,  under 
the  Archbishopric  of  Utrecht ;  and  the  remaining  four, 
Arras,  Tournay,  St.  Omer,  and  Namur,  which  lie  nearest 
to  France,  and  have  language,  character,  and  manners  in 
common  with  that  country,  under  the  Archbishopric  of 
Cambray.  Malines,  situated  in  the  middle  of  Brabant 
and  in  the  centre  of  all  the  seventeen  provinces,  was 
made  the  primacy  of  all  the  rest,  and  was,  with  several 
rich  abbeys,  the  reward  of  Granvella.  The  revenues  of 
the  new  bishoprics  were  provided  by  an  appropriation  of 
the  treasures  of  the  cloisters  and  abbeys  which  had  accu- 
niulated  from  pious  benefactions  during  centuries.  Some 
of  the  abbots  were  raised  to  the  episcopal  throne,  and 
with  the  possession  of  their  cloisters  and  prelacies  retained 
also  the  vote  at  the  diet  which  was  attached  to  them.  At 
the  same  time  to  every  bishopric  nine  prebends  were 
attached,  and  bestowed  on  the  most  learned  juris-consult- 


92  REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

ists  and  theologians,  who  were  to  support  tlie  Inquisition 
and  the  bishop  in  his  spiritual  oihce.  Of  these,  the  two 
Avho  were  most  deserving  by  knowledge,  experience,  and 
unblemished  life  were  to  be  constituted  actual  inquisi- 
tors, and  to  have  the  first  voice  in  tlie  Synods.  To  the 
Archbishop  of  Malines,  as  metropolitan  of  all  the  seven- 
teen provinces,  the  full  authority  was  given  to  appoint, 
or  at  discretion  depose,  archbisliops  and  bishops ;  and  the 
Romish  See  was  only  to  give  its  ratification  to  his  acts. 

At  any  other  period  the  nation  would  have  received 
with  gratitude  and  approved  of  such  a  measure  of  church 
reform  since  it  was  fully  called  for  by  circumstances,  was 
conducive  to  the  interests  of  religion,  and  absolutely  in- 
dispensable for  the  moral  reformation  of  the  monkhood. 
Now  the  temper  of  the  times  saw  in  it  nothing  but 
a  hateful  change.  Universal  was  the  indignation  with 
which  it  was  received.  A  cry  was  raised  that  the  con- 
stitution was  trampled  under  foot,  the  rights  of  the  nation 
violated,  and  that  the  Inquisition  was  already  at  the  door, 
and  would  soon  open  here,  as  in  Spain,  its  bloody  tribu- 
nal. The  people  beheld  with  dismay  these  new  servants 
of  arbitrary  power  and  of  persecution.  The  nobility  saw 
in  it  nothing  but  a  strengthening  of  the  royal  authority 
by  the  addition  of  fourteen  votes  in  the  states'  assembly, 
and  a  withdrawal  of  the  firmest  prop  of  their  freedom, 
the  balance  of  the  royal  and  the  civil  power.  The  old 
bishops  complained  of  tlie  diminution  of  their  incomes 
and  the  circumscription  of  their  sees ;  the  abbots  and 
monks  had  not  only  lost  power  and  income,  but  had 
received  in  exchange  rigid  censors  of  their  morals.  Noble 
and  simple,  laity  and  clergy,  united  against  the  common 
foe,  and  while  all  singly  struggled  for  some  petty  private 
interest,  the  cry  appeared  to  come  from  the  formidable 
voice  of  patriotism. 

Among  all  the  provinces  Brabant  was  loudest  in  its 
opposition.  The  inviolability  of  its  church  constitution 
was  one  of  the  important  privileges  which  it  had  reserved 
in  the  remarkable  charter  of  the  "  Joyful  Entry,"  — 
statutes  whieii  the  sovereign  could  not  violate  without 
releasing  the  nation  from  its  allegiance  to  him.  In  vain 
did  the  university  of  Louvain  assert  that  in  disturbed 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIERLANpg^  AugeieS   C  93 

times  of  the  chureli  a  piivilege  lost  its  power  which  had 
been  granted  in  tlie  period  of  its  tranquillity.  The  intro- 
duction of  the  new  bislioprics  into  the  constitution  was 
thought  to  shake  the  whole  fabric  of  liberty.  The  prela- 
cies, which  were  now  transferred  to  the  bishops,  must 
henceforth  serve  another  rule  than  the  advanta<j;e  of  the 
province  of  whose  states  they  had  been  members.  The 
once  free  patriotic  citizens  were  to  be  instruments  of 
the  Romish  See  and  obedient  tools  of  the  archbishop, 
who  again,  as  first  i^relate  of  Brabant,  had  the  immediate 
control  over  them.  The  freedom  of  voting  was  gone, 
because  the  bishops,  as  servile  spies  of  the  crown,  made 
every  one  fearful.  "Who,"  it  was  asked,  "will  after  this 
venture  to  raise  his  voice  in  ]iarliament  before  such 
observers,  or  in  their  presence  dare  to  protect  the  rights 
of  the  nation  against  the  rapacious  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment? They  will  trace  out  the  resources  of  the  provinces, 
and  betray  to  the  crown  the  secrets  of  our  freedom  and 
our  property.  They  will  obstruct  the  \vay  to  all  offices 
of  honor;  we  shall  soon  see  the  courtiers  of  the  king  suc- 
ceed the  present  men  ;  the  children  of  foreigners  will,  for 
the  future,  fill  the  parliament,  and  the  private  interest  of 
their  patron  will  guide  their  venal  votes."  "What  an  act 
of  opjiression,"  rejoined  the  monks,  "to  pervert  to  other 
objects  the  pious  designs  of  our  holy  institutions,  to  con- 
temn the  inviolable  wishes  of  the  dead,  and  to  take  that 
which  a  devout  charity  had  deposited  in  our  chests  for 
the  relief  of  the  unfortunate  and  make  it  subservient  to 
the  luxury  of  the  bishops,  thus  inflating  their  arrogant 
pomp  with  the  plunder  of  the  poor?"  Not  only  the 
abbots  and  monks,  who  really  did  suffer  by  this  act  of 
appropriation,  but  every  family  which  could  flatter  itself 
with  the  slightest  hope  of  enjoying,  at  some  time  or 
other,  even  in  the  most  remote  posterity,  the  benefit  of 
this  monastic  foundation,  felt  this  disappointment  of  their 
distant  expectations  as  much  as  if  they  had  suffered  an 
actual  injury,  and  the  wrongs  of  a  few  abbot-prelates 
became  the  concern  of  a  whole  nation. 

Historians  have  not  omitted  to  record  the  covert  pro- 
ceedings of  William  of  Orange  during  this  general  com- 
motion, who  labored  to  conduct  to  one  end  these  various 


94  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

and  conflicting  passions.     At  his  instigation  the  people 
of  Brabant  petitioned  the  regent  for  an  advocate  and 
protector,  since  tliey  alone,  of  all  his  Flemish  subjects, 
had  the  misfortune  to  unite,  in  one  and  the  same  person, 
their  counsel   and  their  ruler.     Had   the   demand   been 
granted,   their  choice  could   fall  on  no  other  than   the 
Prince  of  Orange.     But  Granvella,  with  his  usual  presence 
of  mind,  broke  through  the  snare.     "  The  man  who  re- 
ceives this  office,"  he  declared  in  the  state  council,  "will, 
I  hope,   see  that  he  divides  Brabant  with  the  king ! " 
The  long  delay  of  the  papal  bull,  which  was  kept  back 
by  a  misunderstanding  between  the  Romish  and  Spanish 
courts,  gave  the  disaffected   an   opportunity  to  combine 
for  a  common  object.     In  perfect  secrecy  the  states  of 
Brabant  despatched  an  extraordinary  messenger  to  Pius 
IV.  to  urge  their  wishes  in  Rome  itself.     The   ambas- 
sador  was    provided  with    im})ortant   letters  of   recom- 
mendation from  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  carried  with 
him   considerable  sums  to   pave  his  way  to  the  father 
of   the    church.     At  the   same  time  a  public  letter  was 
forwarded  from  the  city  of  Antwerp  to  the  King  of  Spain 
containing  the  most  urgent  representations,  and  suppli- 
cating him   to  spare  that    flourishing  commercial  town 
from"  the   threatened    innovation.      They  knew,  it  was 
stated,  that  the  intentions  of  the  monarch  were  the  best, 
and  that  the  institution  of  the  new  bishops  was  likely  to 
he  highly  conducive  to  the  maintenance  of  true  religion ; 
but  the  foreigners  could  not  be  convinced  of  this,  and  on 
them  depended  the  prosperity  of  their  town.     Among 
them  the  most  groundless  rumors  would  be  as  perilous  as 
the  most  true.    The  first  embassy  was  discovered  in  time, 
and  its  object  disaj)pointed  by  the  prudence  of  the  regent ; 
by  the  second  the  town  of  Antwerp  gained  so  far  its 
point  that  it  was  to  remain  without  a  bishop,  at  least  until 
the  personal  arrival  of  the  king,  which  was  talked  of. 

The  example  and  success  of  Antwerp  gave  the  signal 
of  opposition  to  all  the  other  towns  for  which  a  new 
bishop  was  intended.  It  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  the 
hatred  to  the  Inquisition  and  the  unanimity  of  the  Flem- 
ish towns  at  this  date  that  they  preferred  to  renounce 
all    the    advantages   which   the    residence   of    a    bishop 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  95 

■would  necessarily  bring  to  their  local  trade  rather  than 
by  their  consent  ])roinote  that  abhorred  tribunal,  and 
thus  act  in  oj)position  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  nation. 
Deventer,  Ruremond,  and  Leuwarden  placed  themselves 
in  determined  opposition,  and  (1561)  successfully  carried 
their  point ;  in  the  other  towns  the  bishops  were,  in 
spite  of  all  remonstrances,  forcibly  inducted.  Utrecht, 
Plaarlem,  St.  Oiner,  and  Middelburg  were  among  the  first 
which  opened  their  gates  to  them ;  the  remaining  towns 
followed  their  example ;  but  in  Malines  and  Herzogen- 
busch  the  bishops  were  received  with  very  little  respect. 
When  Granvella  made  his  solemn  entry  into  the  former 
town  not  a  single  nobleman  showed  himself,  and  his 
triumph  was  wanting  in  everything  that  could  make  it 
real,  because  those  remained  away  over  whom  it  was 
meant  to  be  celebrated. 

In  the  meantime,  too,  the  period  had  elapsed  within 
which  the  Spanish  troops  were  to  have  left  the  country, 
and  as  yet  there  was  no  appearance  of  their  being  with- 
drawn. People  perceived  with  terror  the  real  cause  of 
the  delay,  and  suspicion  lent  it  a  fatal  connection  with  the 
Inquisition.  The  detention  of  these  troops,  as  it  rendered 
the  nation  more  vigilant  and  distrustful,  made  it  more 
difficult  for  the  minister  to  proceed  with  the  other  inno- 
vations, and  yet  he  would  fain  not  deprive  himself  of  this 
powerful  and  apparently  indispensable  aid  in  a  country 
where  all  hated  him,  and  in  the  execution  of  a  commission 
to  which  all  were  opposed.  At  last,  however,  the  regent 
saw  herself  compelled  by  the  universal  murmurs  of  dis- 
content, to  urge  most  earnestly  upon  the  king  the  neces- 
sity of  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops.  "  The  provinces," 
she  writes  to  Madi'id,  "have  unanimously  declared  that 
they  would  never  again  be  induced  to  grant  the  extraor- 
dinary taxes  required  by  the  government  as  long  as  word 
was  not  kept  with  them  in  this  matter.  The  danger  of  a 
revolt  was  far  more  imminent  than  that  of  an  attack  by 
the  French  Protestants,  and  if  a  rebellion  was  to  take 
place  in  the  Netherlands  these  forces  would  be  too  weak 
to  repress  it,  and  there  was  not  sufficient  money  in  the 
treasury  to  enlist  new."  By  delaying  his  answer  the  king 
still  sought  at  least  to  gain  time,  and  the  reiterated  rep- 


96  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

rescntations  of  the  reo:ent  would  still  have  remained 
ineffectual,  if,  fortunately  for  the  provinces,  a  loss  which 
he  had  lately  suffered  from  the  Turks  had  not  compelled 
hun  to  employ  these  troops  in  the  Mediterranean,  He, 
therefore,  at  last  consented  to  their  departure  :  they  were 
embarked  in  1561  in  Zealand,  and  the  exulting  shouts  of 
all  the  provinces  accompanied  their  departure.^ 

Meanwhile  Granvclla  ruled  in  the  council  of  state 
almost  uncontrolled.  All  offices,  secular  and  spiritual, 
were  given  away  through  him;  his  opinion  prevailed 
against  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  whole  assembly.  The 
regent  herself  was  governed  by  him.  He  had  contrived 
to  manage  so  that  her  appointment  was  made  out  for  two 
years  only,  and  by  this  expedient  he  kept  her  always  in 
his  power.  It  seldom  happened  that  any  important 
affair  was  submitted  to  the  other  members,  and  if  it 
really  did  occur  it  was  only  such  as  had  been  long  before 
decided,  to  which  it  was  only  necessary  for  formality's 
sake  to  gain  their  sanction.  Whenever  a  royal  letter 
was  react  Vigiius  received  instructions  to  omit  all  such 
passages  as  were  underlined  by  the  minister.  It  often 
happened  that  this  correspondence  with  Spain  laid  open 
the  weakness  of  the  government,  or  the  anxiety  felt  by 
the  regent,  with  whicli  it  was  not  expedient  to  inform 
the  members,  whose  loyalty  was  distrusted.  If  again  it 
occurred  that  the  opposition  gained  a  majority  over  the 
minister,  and  insisted  Avith  determination  on  an  article 
which  he  could  not  well  put  off  any  longer,  he  sent  it  to 
the  ministry  at  Madrid  for  their  decision,  by  which  he 
at  least  gained  time,  and  in  any  case  was  certain  to  find 
support.  With  the  exception  of  the  Count  of  Barlaimont, 
the  President  Vigiius,  and  a  few  others,  all  the  other 
counsellors  wei*e  but  superfluous  figures  in  the  senate, 
and  the  minister's  behavior  to  them  marked  the  small 
value  which  he  placed  upon  their  friendship  and  adher- 
ence. No  wonder  that  men  whose  pride  had  been  so 
greatly  indulged  by  the  flattering  attentions  of  sovereign 
princes,  and  to  whom,  as  to  the  idols  of  their  country, 
their  fellow-citizens  paid  the  most  reverential  submission, 
should  be  highly  indignant  at  this  arrogance  of  a  ])lebeian. 
Many  of  them  had  been  personally  insulted  by  Granvella. 


REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHEliLANDS .  97 

The  Prince  of  Orange  was  'svell  aware  that  it  was  he  who 
liad  prevented  his  marriage  witli  tlie  Princess  of  Lotraine, 
and  that  he  had  also  endeavored  to  break  off  the  neg-otia- 
tions  for  another  alliance  Avith  the  Princess  of  Savoy. 
He  had  deprived  Count  Horn  of  the  government  of 
Gueldres  and  Ziilphen,  and  had  kept  for  himself  an  abbey 
which  Count  Egmont  had  in  vain  exerted  himself  to 
obtain  for  a  relation.  Confident  of  his  superior  power,  he 
did  not  even  think  it  worth  while  to  conceal  from  the 
nobility  his  contempt  for  them,  and  wliich,  as  a  ride, 
marked  his  whole  administration  ;  William  of  Orange 
was  the  only  one  with  Avhom  he  deemed  it  advisable  to 
dissemble.  Although  he  really  believed  liimself  to  be 
raised  far  above  all  the  laws  of  fear  and  decorum,  still 
in  this  point,  however,  his  confident  arrogance  misled 
liim,  and  he  erred  no  less  against  policy  than  he  sinned 
against  propriety.  In  the  existing  postiire  of  affairs  the 
government  could  hardly  have  adopted  a  worse  measure 
than  that  of  throwing  disrespect  on  the  nobility.  It  had 
it  in  its  power  to  flatter  the  prejudices  and  feelings  of  the 
aristocracy,  and  thus  artfully  and  imperceptibly  win  them 
over  to  its  plans,  and  through  them  subvert  the  edifice 
of  national  liberty.  Now  it  admonished  tliem,  most  in- 
opportunely, of  their  duties,  their  dignity,  and  their 
power;  calling  upon  them  even  to  be  patriots,  and  to 
devote  to  the  cause  of  true  greatness  an  ambition  wliich 
hitherto  it  had  inconsiderately  repelled.  To  carry  into 
effect  the  ordinances  it  required  the  active  co-operation 
of  the  lieutenant-governors ;  no  wonder,  however,  that 
the  latter  showed  but  little  zeal  to  afford  this  assistance. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  liighly  probable  that  they  silently 
labored  to  augment  the  difficulties  of  the  minister,  and  to 
subvert  his  measures,  and  through  his  ill-success  to 
diminish  the  king's  confidence  in  him,  and  expose  his 
administration  to  contempt.  The  rapid  progress  Avhich 
in  spite  of  those  horrible  edicts  the  Reformation  made 
during  Granvella's  administration  in  the  Netherlands,  is 
evidently  to  be  ascribed  to  the  lukewarmness  of  the 
nobility  in  opposing  it.  If  the  minister  had  been  sure 
of  the  nobles  he  might  have  despised  the  fury  of  the  mob, 
which  would  have  impotently  dashed  itself  against  the 


98  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

dreaded  barriers  of  the  tliroue.  The  sufferings  of  the 
citizens  lingered  long  in  tears  and  sighs,  until  the  arts  and 
the  example  of  the  nobility  called  forth  a  louder  expres- 
sion of  them. 

Meanwhile  the  inquisitions  into  religion  were  carried 
on  Avith  renewed  vigor  by  the  crowd  of  new  laborers 
(1561,  1562),  and  the  edicts  against  heretics  were  enforced 
with  fearful  obedience.  But  the  critical  moment  when 
this  detestable  remedy  might  have  been  applied  was 
allowed  to  pass  by ;  the  nation  had  become  too  strong  and 
vigorous  for  such  rough  treatment.  Tlie  new  religion  could 
now  be  extirpated  only  by  the  death  of  all  its  professors. 
The  present  executions  were  but  so  many  alluring  ex- 
hibitions of  its  excellence,  so  many  scenes  of  its  triumphs 
and  radiant  virtue.  The  heroic  greatness  with  which  the 
victims  died  made  converts  to  the  opinions  for  Avhich 
they  perished.  One  martyr  gained  ten  new  proselytes. 
Not  in  towns  only,  or  villages,  but  on  the  very  highways, 
in  the  boats  and  public  carriages  disputes  Avere  held 
touching  the  dignity  of  the  pope,  the  saints,  purgatory, 
and  indulgences,  and  sermons  Avere  preached  and  men 
converted.  From  the  country  and  from  the  towns  the 
common  people  rushed  in  crowds  to  rescue  the  prisoners 
of  the  Holy  Tribunal  from  the  hands  of  its  satellites,  and 
the  municipal  officers  Avho  ventured  to  support  it  Avith  the 
civil  forces  were  pelted  Avith  stones.  Multitudes  accom- 
panied the  Protestant  preachers  Avhom  the  Incpiisition 
pursued,  bore  them  on  their  shoulders  to  and  from  church, 
and  at  the  risk  of  their  lives  concealed  them  from  their 
persecutors.  The  first  province  which  Avas  seized  with 
the  fanatical  spirit  of  rebellion  was,  as  had  been  expected, 
Walloon  Flanders.  A  French  Calvinist,  by  name  Lannoi, 
set  himself  up  in  Tournay  as  a  Avorker  of  miracles,  Avhere 
he  hired  a  few  women  to  simulate  diseases,  and  to  pretend 
to  be  cured  by  him.  He  preached  in  the  woods  near  the 
toAvn,  drew  the  people  in  great  numbci-s  after  him,  and 
scattered  in  their  minds  the  seeds  of  rebellion.  Similar 
teachers  appeared  in  Lille  and  Valenciennes,  but  in  the 
latter  place  the  municipal  functionaries  succeeded  in 
seizing  the  persons  of  these  incendiaries  ;  Avhile,  however, 
they  delayed  to  execute  them  their  followers  increased 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  99 

SO  rapidly  that  they  became  sufficiently  strong  to  break 
open  the  prisons  and  forcibly  deprive  justice  of  its 
victims.  Troops  at  last  were  brought  into  the  town  and 
order  restored.  But  this  trifling  occurrence  had  for  a 
moment  withdrawn  the  veil  which  had  hitherto  concealed 
the  strength  of  the  Protestant  party,  and  allowed  the 
minister  to  compute  their  prodigious  numbers.  In  Tour- 
nay  alone  five  thousand  at  one  time  had  been  seen  attend- 
ing the  sermons,  and  not  many  less  in  Valenciennes. 
What  might  not  be  expected  from  the  northern  provinces, 
where  liberty  was  greater,  and  the  seat  of  government 
more  remote,  and  where  the  vicinity  of  Germany  and 
Denmark  multiplied  the  sources  of  contagion?  One 
slight  provocation  had  sufliced  to  draw  from  its  conceal- 
ment so  formidable  a  multitude.  How  much  greater  was, 
perhaps,  the  number  of  those  who  in  their  hearts  acknowl- 
edged the  new  sect,  and  only  waited  for  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  publish  their  adhesion  to  it.  This  discovery 
greatly  alarmed  the  regent.  The  scanty  obedience  paid 
to  the  edicts,  the  wants  of  the  exhausted  treasury,  which 
compelled  her  to  impose  new  taxes,  and  the  suspicious 
movements  of  the  Huguenots  on  the  French  frontiers 
still  further  increased  her  anxiety.  At  the  same  time 
she  received  a  command  from  Madrid  to  send  off  two 
thousand  Flemish  cavalry  to  the  army  of  the  Queen 
Mother  in  France,  who,  in  the  distresses  of  the  civil  war, 
had  recourse  to  Philip  II.  for  assistance.  Every  affair  of 
faith,  in  whatever  land  it  might  be,  was  made  by  Philip 
his  own  business.  He  felt  it  as  keenly  as  any  catastrophe 
which  could  befall  his  own  house,  and  in  such  cases 
always  stood  ready  to  sacrifice  his  means  to  foreign 
necessities.  If  it  were  interested  motives  that  here 
swayed  him  they  were  at  least  kingly  and  grand,  and  the 
bold  support  of  his  principles  wins  our  admiration  as 
much  as  their  ci'uelty  withholds  our  esteem. 

The  regent  laid  before  the  council  of  state  the  royal 
will  on  the  subject  of  these  troops,  but  with  a  very  warm 
opposition  on  the  part  of  the  nobility.  Count  Egmont 
and  the  Prince  of  Orange  declared  that  the  time  was  ill- 
chosen  for  stripping  the  Netherlands  of  troops,  %vhen  the 
aspect  of  affairs  rendered  rather  the  enlistment  of  new 


100       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

levies  advisable.     The  movements  of  the  troops  in  France 
momentarily  threatened  a  surprise,  and  the  commotions 
"vvithin  the  provinces  demanded,  more  than  ever,  the  ut- 
most vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  government.     Hitherto, 
they  said,  the  German  Protestants  had  looked  idly  on 
during  the  struggles  of  their  brethren  in  the  faith ;  but 
will  they  continue  to  do  so,  especially  when  we  are  lend- 
ing our  aid  to  strengthen  their  enemy  ?     By  thus  acting 
shall  we  not  rouse  their  vengeance   against  us,  and  call 
their   arms   into    the    northern     Netherlands?      Nearly 
the  whole  council  of  state  joined  in  this  opinion  ;  their 
representations  were  energetic  and  not  to  be  gainsaid. 
The  regent  herself,  as  well  as  the  minister,  could  not  but 
feel  their  truth,  and  their  own  interests   appeared  to  for- 
bid obedience  to  the  royal  mandate.     Would  it  not  be 
imj^olitic  to  withdraw  from  the  Inquisition  its  sole  prop 
by  removing  the  larger  portion   of  the   army,  and  in  a 
rebellious  country  to  leave  themselves  without  defence, 
dependent  on  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  arrogant  aristoc- 
racy?    While   the    regent,    divided    between    the   royal 
commands,  the  urgent   importunity   of  her  council,  and 
her  own  fears,  could  not  venture  to  come  to  a  decision, 
William  of  Orange  rose  and  proposed  the  assembling  of 
the  States  General.     But  nothing   could  have  inflicted  a 
more  fatal  blow  on  the  supremacy  of  the  crown  than  by 
yielding  to  this  advice  to  pnt  the  nation  in  mind  of  its 
power  and  its  rights.     No  measure  could  be  more  hazard- 
ous at  the  present  moment.     The  danger  which  was  thus 
gathering  over  the  minister  did  not  escape  him  ;  a  sign 
from  him  warned  the  regent  to  break  off  the  consultation 
and  adjourn  the  council.     "  The  government,"  be  writes 
to  Madrid,  "  can  do  nothing  more  injurious  to  itself  than 
to  consent  to  the  assembling  of  the  states.     Such  a  step 
is  at  all  times  perilous,  because  it   tempts  the  nation  to 
test  and  restrict  the  rights  of  the  crown  ;  bnt  it  is  many 
times  more  objectionable  at  the  present  moment,  when 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  is  already  widely  spread  amongst 
us;  w^hen   the  abbots,   exasperated   at   the   loss  of  their 
income,  will  neglect  nothing  to  impair  the  dignity  of  the 
bishops;  when  the  whole  nobility  and  all   the  dejiuties 
from  the  towns  are  led  by  the  arts  of  the   Prince  of 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  101 

Orange,  and  the  disaffected  can  securely  reckon  on  the 
assistance  of  the  nation."  This  representation,  which  at 
least  was  not  wanting  in  sound  sense,  did  not  fail  in 
havin<T  the  desired  effect  on  tlie  king's  mind.  The  as- 
seniblTng  of  the  states  was  rejected  once  and  forever, 
tlie  penal  statutes  against  the  heretics  were  renewed  in 
all  their  rigor,  and  the  regent  was  directed  to  hasten  the 
despatch  of  the  required  auxiliaries. 

But  to  this  the  council  of  state  would  not  consent. 
All  that  she  obtained  was,  instead  of  the  troops,  a  supply 
of  money  for  the  Queen  Mother,  which  at  this  crisis  was 
still  more  welcome  to  her.  In  place,  however,  of  assem- 
bling the  states,  and  in  order  to  beguile  the  nation  with, 
at  least,  the  semblance  of  republican  freedom,  the  regent 
summoned  the  governors  of  the  i)rovinces  and  the  knights 
of  the  Golden  Fleece  to  a  special  congress  at  Brussels,  to 
consult  on  the  present  dangers  and  necessities  of  the 
state.  When  the  President,  Viglius,  had  laid  before 
them  the  matters  on  which  they  were  summoned  to  de- 
liberate, three  days  were  given  to  them  for  consideration. 
During:  this  time' the  Prince  of  Orange  assembled  them 
in  his  palace,  Avhere  he  represented  to  them  the  necessity 
of  coraino;  to  some  unanimous  resolution  before  the  next 
sitting,  and  of  agreeing  on  the  measures  which  ought  to 
be  followed  in  the  present  dangerous  state  of  affairs. 

The  majority  assented  to  the  propriety  of  this  course; 
only  Barlaimont,  with  a  few  of  the  dependents  of  the 
cardinal,  had  the  courage  to  plead  for  the  interests  of  the 
crown  and  of  the  minister.  "It  did  not  behoove  them," 
he  said,  "  to  interfere  in  the  concerns  of  the  government, 
and  this  previous  agreement  of  votes  was  an  illegal  and 
culpable  assumption,  in  the  guilt  of  which  he  would  not 
participate  ; "  —  a  declaration  which  broke  up  the  meet- 
ing without  any  conclusion  being  come  to.  The  regent, 
apprised  of  it  by  the  Count  Barlaimont,  artfully  "con- 
trived to  keep  the  knights  so  well  employed  during  their 
stay  in  the  town  that  they  could  find  no  time  for  coming 
to  any  further  secret  understanding;  in  this  session, 
however,  it  was  arranged,  with  their  concurrence,  that 
Florence  of  Montmorency,  Lord  of  Montigny,  should 
make  a  journey  to  Spain,  in  order  to  acquaint  the  king 


102       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

with  the  present  posture  of  affairs.  But  the  regent  sent 
before  him  another  messenger  to  Madrid,  who  previously 
informed  the  kingj  of  all  that  had  been  debated  between 
the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  knights  at  the  seci'et  con- 
ference. 

The  Flemish  ambassador  was  flattered  in  Madrid  with 
empty  protestations  of  the  king's  favor  and  paternal  sen- 
timents towards  the  Netherlands,  while  the  regent  was 
commanded  to  thwart,  to  the  utmost  of  her  power,  the 
secret  combinations  of  the  nobility,  and,  if  possible,  to 
sow  discord  among  their  most  eminent  members.  Jeal- 
ousy, private  interest,  and  religious  differences  had  long 
divided  many  of  the  nobles ;  their  share  in  the  common 
neglect  and  contempt  with  which  they  were  treated,  and 
a  oreneral  hatred  of  the  minister  had  asrain  united  them. 
So  long  as  Count  Egmont  and  the  Prince  of  Orange 
were  suitors  for  the  regency  it  could  not  fail  but  that  at 
times  their  competing  claims  should  have  brought  them 
into  collision.  Both  had  met  each  other  on  the  road  to 
glory  and  before  the  throne;  both  again  met  in  the  re- 
public, where  they  strove  for  the  same  prize,  the  favor  of 
their  fellow-citizens.  Such  ojDposite  characters  soon  be- 
came estranged,  but  the  powerful  sympathy  of  necessity 
as  quickly  reconciled  them.  Each  was  now  indispensable 
to  the  other,  and  the  emergency  united  these  two  men 
together  with  a  bond  which  their  hearts  would  never 
have  furnished.  But  it  was  on  this  very  uncongeniality 
of  disposition  that  the  regent  based  her  plans ;  if  she 
could  fortunately  succeed  in  separating  them  she  would 
at  the  same  time  divide  the  whole  Flemish  nobility  into 
two  parties.  Through  the  presents  and  small  attentions 
by  which  she  exclusively  honored  these  two  she  also 
sought  to  excite  against  them  the  envy  and  distrust  of 
the  rest,  and  by  appearing  to  give  Count  Egmont  a  pref- 
erence over  the  Prince  of  Orange  she  hoped  to  make  the 
latter  suspicious  of  Egmont's  good  faith.  It  happened 
that  at  this  very  time  she  was  obliged  to  send  an  extraor- 
dinary ambassador  to  Frankfort,  to  be  present  at  the 
election  of  a  Roman  emperor.  She  chose  for  this  office 
the  Duke  of  Arschot,  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  prince, 
in  order  in  some  degree  to  show  in  his  case  how  splendid 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       103 

was  the  reward  wliich  hatred  against  the  latter  might 
look  for. 

The  Orange  faction,  however,  instead  of  suffering  any 
diminution,  had  gained  an  important  accession  in  Count 
Horn,  who,  as  admiral  of  the  Flemish  marine,  had  con- 
voyed the  king  to  Biscay,  and  now  again  took  his  seat  in 
the  council  of  state.  Horn's  restless  and  reimblican 
spirit  readily  met  the  daring  schemes  of  Orange  and 
Egmont,  and  a  dangerous  Triumvirate  was  soon  formed 
by  these  three  friends,  which  shook  the  royal  power  in 
the  Netherlands,  but  which  terminated  very  differently 
for  each  of  its  members. 

(1562.)  Meanwhile  Montigny  had  returned  from  his 
embassy,  and  brought  back  to  the  council  of  state  the 
most  gracious  assurance  of  the  monarch.  But  the  Prince 
of  Orange  had,  throuo;h  his  own  secret  channels  of  Intel- 
ligence,  received  more  credible  information  trom  Madrid, 
which  entirely  contradicted  this  report.  By  these  means 
he  learnt  all' the  ill  services  which  Granvella  had  done 
him  and  his  friends  with  the  king,  and  the  odious  appel- 
lations which  were  there  applied  to  the  Flemish  nobility. 
There  Avas  no  help  for  them  so  long  as  the  minister  re- 
tained the  helm  of  government,  and  to  procure  his  dis- 
missal was  the  scheme,  however  rash  and  adventurous  it 
appeared,  which  wholly  occupied  the  mind  of  the  prince. 
It  was  agreed  between  him  and  Counts  Horn  and  Eg- 
mont to  despatch  a  joint  letter  to  the  king,  and,  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  nobility,  formally  to  accuse  the  min- 
ister, and  press  energetically  for  his  removal.  The  Duke 
of  Arschot,  to  whom  this  proposition  was  communicated 
by  Count  Egmont,  refused  to  concur  in  it,  haughtily 
declaring  that  he  was  not  disposed  to  receive  laws  from 
Egmont  and  Orange;  that  he  had  no  cause  of  complaint 
against  Granvella,  and  that  he  thought  it  very  presump- 
tuous  to  prescribe  to  the  king  what  ministers  he  ought  to 
employ.  Orange  received  a  similar  answer  from  the 
Count  of  Aremberg.  Either  the  seeds  of  distrust  which 
the  regent  had  scattered  amongst  the  nobility  had  already 
taken  root,  or  the  fear  of  the  minister's  poAver  outAveighed 
the  abhorrence  of  his  measures;  at  any  rate,  the  whole 
nobility  shrunk  back  timidly  and  irresolutely  from  the 


104        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

proposal.  This  disappointment  did  not,  however,  dis- 
courage them.  The  letter  was  written  and  subscribed 
by  alUhree  (156B). 

In  it  Granvella  was  represented  as  the  prime  cause  of 
all  the  disorders  in  the  Netherlands.  So  long  as  the 
highest  power  should  be  entrusted  to  him  it  would,  they 
declared,  be  impossible  for  them  to  serve  the  nation  and 
king  effectually ;  on  the  other  hand,  all  would  revert  to 
its  former  tranquillity,  all  opposition  be  discontinued,  and 
the  government  regain  the  affections  of  the  people  as 
soon  as  his  majesty  should  be  pleased  to  remove  this  man 
from  the  helm  of  the  state.  In  that  case,  they  added, 
neither  exertion  nor  zeal  would  be  wanting  on  their  part 
to  maintain  in  these  countries  the  dignity  of  the  king 
and  the  purity  of  the  faith,  which  was  no  less  sacred  to 
them  than  to  the  cardinal,  Granvella. 

Secretly  as  this  letter  was  prepared  still  the  duchess 
was  informed  of  it  in  sufficient  time  to  anticipate  it  by 
another  despatch,  and  to  counteract  the  effect  which  it 
mio-ht  have  had  on  the  king's  mind.  Some  months  passed 
ere''  an  answer  came  from  Madrid.  It  was  mild,  but 
vague.  "  The  king,"  such  was  its  import,  "  was  not  used 
to  condemn  his  ministers  unheard  on  the  mere  accusa- 
tions of  their  enemies.  Common  justice  alone  required 
that  the  accusers  of  the  cardinal  should  descend  from 
general  imputations  to  special  proofs,  and  if  they  were 
not  inclined  to  do  this  in  writing,  one  of  them  might 
come  to  Spain,  where  he  should  be  treated  with  all 
respect.  Besides  this  letter,  which  was  equally  directed 
to  all  three.  Count  Egmont  further  received  an  autograph 
letter  from  the  king,  wherein  his  majesty  expressed  a  wish 
to  learn  from  him  in  particular  what  in  the  common  letter 
had  been  only  generally  touched  upon.  The  regent,  also, 
was  specially  instructed  how  she  was  to  answer  the  three 
collectively,  and  the  count  singly.  The  king  knew  his 
man.  He  felt  it  was  easy  to  manage  Count  Egmont 
alone  ;  for  this  reason  he  sought  to  entice  him  to  Madrid, 
where  he  would  be  removed  fi*om  the  commanding  guid- 
ance of  a  higher  intellect.  In  distinguishing  him  above 
liis  two  friends  by  so  flattering  a  mark  of  his  confidence, 
he  made  a  difference  in  the  relation  in  which  they  sever- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       105 

ally  stood  to  the  throne ;  how  could  they,  then,  unite  with 
equal  zeal  for  the  satne  object  when  the  inducements 
were  no  longer  the  same  ?  This  time,  indeed,  the  vigil- 
ance of  Orange  frustrated  the  scheme ;  but  the  sequel  of 
the  history  will  show  that  the  seed  which  was  now  scat- 
tered was  not  altogether  lost. 

(1563.)  The  king's  answer  gave  no  satisfaction  to  the 
three  confederates ;  they  boldly  determined  to  venture  a 
second  attempt.  "  It  had,"  they  wrote, ."  surprised  them 
not  a  little,  that  his  majesty  had  thought  their  represen- 
tations so  unworthy  of  attention.  It  war,  not  as  accusers 
of  the  minister,  but  as  counsellors  of  his  majesty,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  inform  their  master  of  the  condition  of 
his  states,  that  they  had  despatched  that  letter  to  him. 
They  sought  not  the  ruin  of  the  minister,  indeed  it  would 
gratify  them  to  see  him  contented  and  happy  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world  than  here  in  the  Netherlands.  They 
w^ere,  however,  fully  persuaded  of  this,  that  his  continued 
presence  there  was  absolutely  incompatible  with  the  gen- 
eral tranquillity.  The  present  dangerous  condition  of 
their  native  country  Avould  allow  none  of  them  to  leave 
it,  much  less  to  take  so  long  a  journey  as  to  Spain  on 
Granvella's  account.  If,  therefore,  his  majesty  did  not 
please  to  comply  with  their  written  request,  they  hoped 
to  be  excused  for  the  future  from  attendance  in  the 
senate,  where  they  were  only  exposed  to  the  mortification 
of  meeting  the  minister,  and  where  they  could  be  of  no 
service  either  to  the  king  or  the  state,  but  only  appeared 
contemptible  in  their  own  sight.  In  conclusion,  they 
begged  his  majesty  would  not  take  ill  the  plain  simplicity 
of  their  languge,  since  persons  of  their  character  set 
more  value  on  acting  well  than  on  speaking  finely."  To 
the  same  purport  was  a  separate  letter  from  Count 
Egmont,  in  which  he  returned  thanks  for  the  royal  auto- 
graph. This  second  address  was  followed  by  an  answer 
ito  the  effect  that  "  their  representations  should  be  taken 
into  consideration,  meanwhile  they  were  requested  to 
attend  the  council  of  state  as  heretofore." 

It  was  evident  that  the  monarch  was  far  from  intending 
to  grant  their  request ;  they,  therefore,  from  this  time 
forth  absented  themselves  from  the  state  council,  and 


106       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLANDS. 

even  left  Brussels.  Not  having  succeeded  in  removing  the 
minister  by  lawful  means  they  sought  to  accomplish  this 
end  by  a  new  mode  from  which  more  might  be  expected. 
On  every  occasion  they  and  their  adherents  openly 
showed  the  contempt  which  they  felt  for  him,  and  con- 
trived to  throw  ridicule  on  everything  he  undertook.  By 
this  contemptuous  treatment  they  ho})ed  to  harass  the 
haughty  spirit  of  the  priest,  and  to  obtain  through  his 
mortified  self-love  what  they  had  failed  in  by  other  means. 
In  this,  indeed,  they  did  not  succeed  ;  but  the  expedient 
on  which  they  had  fallen  led  in  the  end  to  the  ruin  of 
the  minister. 

The  popular  voice  was  raised  more  loudly  against  him 
so  soon  as  it  was  perceived  that  he  had  forfeited  the  good 
opinion  of  the  nobles,  and  that  men  whose  sentiments 
they  had  been  used  blindly  to  echo  preceded  them  in 
detestation  of  him.  The  contemptuous  manner  in  which 
the  nobility  now  treated  him  devoted  him  in  a  measure 
to  the  general  scorn  and  emboldened  calumny  which 
never  spares  even  what  is  holiest  and  purest,  to  lay  its 
sacrilegious  hand  on  his  honor.  The  new  constitution  of 
the  church,  which  was  the  great  grievance  of  the  nation, 
had  been  the  basis  of  his  fortunes.  This  was  a  crime  that 
could  not  be  forgiven.  Every  fresh  execution  —  and 
with  such  spectacles  the  activity  of  the  hiquisitors  was 
only  too  liberal  —  kept  alive  and  furnished  dreadful  exer- 
cise to  the  bitter  animosity  against  him,  and  at  last  custom 
and  usage  inscribed  his  name  on  every  act  of  oppression. 
A  stranger  in  a  land  into  which  he  had  been  introduced 
against  "its  will;  alone  among  millions  of  enemies;  un- 
certain of  all  his  tools ;  supported  only  by  the  weak  arm 
of  distant  royalty ;  maintaining  his  intercourse  with  the 
nation,  which  he  had  to  gain,  only  by  means  of  faithless 
instruments,  all  of  whom  made  it  their  highest  object  to 
falsify  his  actions  and  misrepresent  his  motives;  lastly, 
with  a  woman  for  his  coadjutor  who  could  not  share  with 
him  the  burden  of  the  general  execration  —  thus  he  stood 
exposed  to  the  wantonness,  the  ingratitude,  the  faction, 
the  envy,  and  all  the  evil  passions  of  a  licentious,  insub- 
ordinate people.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  hatred 
which  he  bad  incurred  far  outran  the  demerits  which 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       107 

could  be  laid  to  his  charge ;  that  it  was  difficult,  nay  im- 
possible, for  his  accusers  to  substantiate  by  proof  the 
general  condemnation  whicli  fell  upon  him  from  all  sides. 
Before  and  after  him  fanaticism  dragged  its  victims  to 
the  altar;  before  and  after  him  civil  blood  flowed,  the 
rio"hts  of  men  were  made  a  mock  of,  and  men  themselves 
rendered  wretched.  Under  Charles  V.  tyranny  ought  to 
have  paiued  more  acutely  through  its  novelty;  under 
the  Duke  of  Alva  it  was  carried  to  far  more  unnatural 
lengths,  insomuch  that  Granvella's  administration,  in 
comparison  with  that  of  his  successor,  was  even  merciful ; 
and  yet  we  do  not  find  that  his  contemporaries  ever 
evinced  the  same  degree  of  personal  exasperation  and 
spite  against  the  latter  in  which  they  indulged  against 
his  predecessor.  To  cloak  the  meanness  of  his  birth  in 
the  splendor  of  high  dignities,  and  by  an  exalted  station 
to  place  him  if  possible  above  the  malice  of  his  enemies, 
the  regent  had  made  interest  at  Rome  to  procure  for  him 
the  cardinal's  hat ;  but  this  very  honor,  which  connected 
him  more  closely  with  the  papal  court,  made  him  so 
much  the  more  an  alien  in  the  provinces.  The  purple 
was  a  new  crime  in  Brussels,  and  an  obnoxious,  detested 
garb,  which  in  a  measure  publicly  held  forth  to  view  the 
principles  on  which  his  future  conduct  would  be  governed. 
Neither  his  honorable  rank,  which  alone  often  consecrates 
the  most  infamous  caitiff,  nor  his  talents,  which  com- 
manded esteem,  nor  even  his  terrible  omnipotence,  which 
daily  revealed  itself  in  so  many  bloody  manifestations, 
could  screen  him  from  derision.  Terror  and  scorn,  the 
fearful  and  the  ludicruous,  were  in  his  instance  unnatur- 
ally blended.*  Odious  rumors  branded  his  honor ;  mur- 
derous attempts  on  the  lives  of  Egmont  and  Orange  were 
ascribed  to  him;  the  most  incredible  things  found  cre- 

*  The  nobility,  at  the  suggestion  of  Count  Egmont.  caused  their  servants 
to  wear  a  common  livery,  on  which  was  embroidered  a  fool's  cap.  All 
Brussels  interpreted  it  for  the  cardinal's  hat,  and  every  appearance  of  such 
a  servant  renewed  their  laughter ;  this  badge  of  a  fool's  cap,  which  was 
otfeusive  to  the  court,  was  subsequently  changed  into  a  bundle  of  arrows  — 
an  accidental  jest  which  took  a  very  serious  end.  and  probablv  was  the  origin 
of  the  anna  of  the  republic.  Vit.  Vigl.  T.  II.  35  Thuan.  480.  The  respect  for 
the  cardinal  sunk  at  last  so  low  that  a  caricature  was  publicly  placed  in  his 
own  hand,  in  which  he  was  represented  seated  on  a  heap  of  eggs,  out  of 
which  bishops  were  crawling.  Over  him  hovered  a  devil  with  the  inscription 
—  "  This  is  my  sou,  hear  ye  him  !  " 


108       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

deuce ;  the  most  monstrous,  if  they  referred  to  him  or 
were  said  to  emanate  from  him,  surprised  no  longer. 
The  nation  had  ah-eady  become  uncivilized  to  that  degree 
where  the  most  contradictory  sentiments  prevail  side  by 
side,  and  the  finer  boundary  lines  of  decorum  and  moral 
feeling  are  erased.  This  belief  in  extraordinary  crimes 
is  almost  invariably  their  immediate  precursor. 

But  with  this  gloomy  prospect  the  strange  destiny  of 
this  man  opens  at  the  same  time  a  grander  view,  which 
impresses  the  unprejudiced  observer  with  pleasure  and 
admiration.  Here  he  beholds  a  nation  dazzled  by  no 
splendor,  and  restrained  by  no  fear,  firmly,  inexorably, 
and  unpremeditatedly  unanimous  in  punishing  the  crime 
which  had  been  committed  against  its  dignity  by  the 
violent  introduction  of  a  stranger  into  the  heart  of  its 
political  constitution.  We  see  him  ever  aloof  and  ever 
isolated,  like  a  foreign  hostile  body  hovering  over  a  sur- 
face which  repels  its  contact.  The  strong  hand  itself  of 
the  monarch,  who  Avas  his  friend  and  protector,  could  not 
support  him  against  the  antipathies  of  the  nation  which 
had  once  resolved  to  withhold  from  him  all  its  sympathy. 
The  voice  of  national  hatred  was  all  powerful,  and  Avas 
ready  to  forego  even  private  interest,  its  certain  gains ; 
his  alms  even  were  shunned,  like  the  fruit  of  an  accursed 
tree.  Like  pestilential  vapor,  the  infamy  of  universal 
reprobation  hung  over  him.  In  his  case  gratitude  be- 
lieved itself  absolved  from  its  duties;  his  adlierents 
shunned  him  ;  his  friends  were  dumb  in  his  behalf.  So 
terribly  did  the  people  avenge  the  insulted  majesty  of 
their  nobles  and  their  nation  on  the  greatest  monarch  of 
the  earth. 

History  has  repeated  this  memorable  example  only 
once,  in  Cardinal  Mazarin ;  but  the  instance  differed  ac- 
cording to  the  spirit  of  the  two  periods  and  nations. 
The  highest  power  could  not  protect  either  from  derision  ; 
but  if  France  found  vent  for  its  indignation  in  laughing 
at  its  pantaloon,  the  Netherlands  hurried  from  scorn  to 
rebellion.  The  former,  after  a  long  bondage  imder  the 
vigorous  administration  of  Richelieu,  saw  itself  placed 
suddenly  in  unwonted  liberty;  the  latter  had  passed  from 
ancient  hereditary  freedom  into  strange  and  unusual  servi- 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       109 

tude ;  it  was  as  natural  that  the  Fronde  should  end  again 
in  subjection  as  that  the  Belgian  troubles  should  issue  in 
republican  independence.  The  revolt  of  the  Parisians 
was  the  offspring  of  poverty ;  unbridled,  but  not  bold, 
arrogant,  but  without  energy,  base  and  plebeian,  like  the 
source  from  which  it  sprang.  The  murmur  of  the  Nether- 
lands was  the  proud  and  powerful  voice  of  wealth.  Licen- 
tiousness and  hunger  inspired  the  former;  revenge,  life, 
property,  and  religion  were  the  animating  motives  of  the 
latter.  Rapacity  was  Mazarin's  spring  of  action  ;  Gran- 
vella's  lust  of  power.  The  former  was  humane  and  mild; 
the  latter  harsh,  imperious,  cruel.  The  French  minister 
sought  in  the  favor  of  his  queen  an  asylum  from  the 
hatred  of  the  magnates  and  the  fury  of  the  people;  the 
Netherlandish  minister  provoked  the  hatred  of  a  whole 
nation  in  order  to  please  one  man.  Against  Mazarin 
were  only  a  few  factions  and  the  mob  they  could  arm; 
an  entire  and  united  nation  against  Granvella.  Under 
the  former  parliament  attempted  to  obtain,  by  stealth, 
a  power  whicli  did  not  beloTig  to  them  ;  under  the  latter 
it  struggled  for  a  lawful  authority  which  he  insidiously  had 
endeavored  to  wrest  from  them.  The  former  had  to 
contepd  with  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the  peers  of 
the  realm,  as  the  latter  had  with  the  native  nobility  and 
the  states,  but  instead  of  endeavoring,  like  the  former, 
to  overthrow  the  common  enemy,  in  the  hope  of  stepping 
themselves  into  his  place,  the  latter  wished  to  destroy  the 
place  itself,  and  to  divide  a  power  which  no  single  man 
ought  to  possess  entire. 

While  these  feelings  were  spreading  among  the  people 
the  influence  of  the  minister  at  the  court  of  the  regent 
began  to  totter.  The  repeated  complaints  against  the 
extent  of  his  power  must  at  last  have  made  her  sensible 
ho-w  little  faith  was  placed  in  her  own  ;  perhaps,  too,  she 
began  to  fear  that  the  universal  abhorrence  which  at- 
tached to  him  would  soon  include  herself  also,  or  that 
his  longer  stay  would  inevitably  provoke  the  menaced 
revolt.  Long  intercourse  Avith  him,  his  instruction  and 
example,  had  qualified  her  to  govern  without  him.  His 
dignity  began  to  be  more  oppressive  to  her  as  he  became 
less  necessary,  and  his  faults,  to  which  her  friendship  had 


110        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

hitherto  lent  a  veil,  became  visible  as  it  was  withdrawn. 
She  was  now  as  much  disposed  to  search  out  and.enumer- 
ate  these  faults  as  she  formerly  had  been  to  conceal 
them.  In  this  unfavorable  state  of  her  feelings  towards 
the  cardinal  the  urgent  and  accumulated  representations 
of  the  nobles  began  at  last  to  find  access  to  her  mind, 
and  the  more  easily,  as  they  contrived  to  mix  up  her  own 
fears  with  their  own.  "  It  was  matter  of  great  astonish- 
ment," said  Count  Egmont  to  her,  "  that  to  gratify  a  man 
who  was  not  even  a  Fleming,  and  of  whom,  therefore,  it 
must  be  well  known  that  his  happiness  could  not  be  de- 
pendent on  the  prosperity  of  this  country,  the  king  could 
be  content  to  see  all  his  Netherlandish  subjects  suffer, 
and  this  to  please  a  foreigner,  who  if  his  birth  made  him 
a  subject  of  the  Emperor,  the  purple  had  made  a  creature 
of  the  court  of  Rome."  "  To  the  king  alone,"  added  tlie 
count,  "  was  Granvella  indebted  for  liis  being  still  among 
the  living;  for  the  futui-e,  however,  he  would  leave  that 
care  of  him  to  the  regent,  and  he  hereby  gave  her 
warning."  As  the  majority  of  the  nobles,  disgusted  with 
the  contemptuous  treatment  which  they  met  with  in  the 
council  of  state,  gradually  withdrew  from  it,  the  arbitrary 
proceedings  of  the  minister  lost  the  last  semblance  of  re- 
publican deliberation  which  had  hitherto  softened  the 
odious  aspect,  and  the  empty  desolation  of  the  council 
chamber  made  his  domineei'ing  rule  appear  in  all  its  ob- 
noxiousness.  The  regent  now  felt  that  she  had  a  master 
over  her,  and  from  that  moment  the  banishment  of  the 
minister  was  decided  upon. 

With  this  object  she  despatched  her  private  secretary, 
Thomas  Arraenteros,  to  Spain,  to  acquaint  the  king  with 
the  circumstances  in  which  the  cardinal  was  placed,  to 
apprise  him  of  the  intimations  she  had  received  of  the  in- 
tentions of  the  nobles,  and  in  this  manner  to  cause 
the  resolution  for  his  recall  to  appear  to  emanate  from  the 
king  himself.  What  she  did  not  like  to  trust  to  a  letter 
Armenteros  was  ordered  ingeniously  to  interweave  in  the 
oral  communication  which  the  king  would  probably  require 
from  him.  Armenteros  fulfilled  his  commission  with  all 
the  ability  of  a  consummate  courtier ;  but  an  audience  of 
four  hours  could  not  overthrow  the  work  of  many  years, 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        Ill 

nor  destroy  in  Philij^'s  mind  his  opinion  of  his  minister, 
whicli  was  there  unalterably  established.  Long  did  the 
monarch  hold  counsel  with  his  policy  and  his  interest, 
until  Granvella  himself  came  to  the  aid  of  his  wavering 
resolution  and  voluntarily  solicited  a  dismissal,  which,  lie 
feared,  could  not  much  longer  be  deferred.  What  the 
detestation  of  all  the  Netherlands  could  not  effect  the  con- 
temptuous treatment  of  the  nobility  accomplished ;  he 
was  at  last  weary  of  a  power  which  was  no  longer  feared, 
and  exposed  him  less  to  envy  than  to  infamy. 

Perhaps  as  some  have  believed  he  trembled  for  his  life, 
which  was  certainly  in  more  than  imaginary  danger ; 
perhaps  he  wished  to  receive  his  dismissal  from  the  king 
under  the  shape  of  a  boon  ratlier  than  of  a  sentence,  and 
after  the  example  of  the  Romans  meet  with  dignity  a  fate 
which  he  could  no  longer  avoid.  Philip  too,  it  would  ap- 
pear, preferred  generously  to  accord  to  the  nation  a 
request  rather  than  to  yield  at  a  later  period  to  a  demand, 
and  hoped  at  least  to  merit  their  thanks  by  voluntarily 
conceding  now  what  necessity  would  ere  long  extort. 
His  fears  prevailed  over  his  obstinacy,  and  prudence  over- 
came pride. 

Granvella  doubted  not  for  a  moment  what  the  decision 
of  the  king  would  be.  A  few  days  after  the  return  of 
Armenteros  he  saw  humility  and  flattery  disappear  from 
the  few  faces  whicli  had  till  then  servilely  smiled  upon 
him ;  the  last  small  crowd  of  base  flatterers  and  eye- 
servants  vanished  from  around  his  person;  his  threshold 
was  forsaken ;  he  perceived  that  the  fructifying  warmth 
of  royal  favor  had  left  him. 

Detraction,  which  had  assailed  him  during  his  whole 
administration,  did  not  spare  him  even  in  the  moment  of 
resignation.  People  did  not  scruple  to  assert  that  a  short 
time  before  he  laid  down  his  office  he  had  expressed  a 
wish  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  Count 
Egmont,  and  even  offered,  if  their  forgiveness  could  be 
hoped  for  on  no  other  terms,  to  ask  pardon  of  them  on 
his  knees.  It  was  base  and  contemptible  to  sully  the 
memory  of  a  great  and  extraordinary  man  with  such  a 
charge,  but  it  is  still  more  so  to  hand  it  down  uncontra- 
dicted to  posterity.     Granvella  submitted   to  the  royal 


112       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

command  with  a  dignified  composure.  Already  had  he 
written,  a  few  months  previously,  to  the  Duke  of  Alva  in 
Spain,  to  prepare  him  a  place  of  refuge  in  Madrid,  in  case 
of  his  having  to  quit  the  Netherlands.  The  latter  long 
bethought  himself  whether  it  was  advisable  to  bring- 
thither  so  dangerous  a  rival  for  the  favor  of  his  king,  or 
to  deny  so  important  a  friend  such  a  valuable  means  of 
indulging  his  old  hatred  of  the  Flemish  nobles.  Revenge 
prevailed  over  fear,  and  he  strenuously  supported  Gran- 
vella's  request  with  the  monarch.  But  his  intercession 
was  fruitless.  Armenteros  had  persuaded  the  king  that 
the  minister's  residence  in  Madrid  would  only  revive, 
with  increased  violence,  all  the  complaints  of  the  Belgian 
nation,  to  which  his  ministry  had  been  sacrificed  ;  for  then, 
he  said,  he  would  be  suspected  of  poisoning  the  very 
source  of  that  power,  whose  outlets  only  he  had  hitherto 
been  charged  with  corrupting.  He  therefore  sent  him  to 
Burgundy,  his  native  place,  for  which  a  decent  pretext 
fortunately  presented  itself.  The  cardinal  gave  to  his 
departure  from  Brussels  the  appearance  of  an  unimportant 
journey,  from  which  he  would  return  in  a  few  days.  At 
the  same  time,  however,  all  the  state  counsellors,  who, 
under  his  administration,  had  voluntarily  excluded  them- 
selves from  its  sittings,  received  a  command  from  the 
court  to  resume  their  seats  in  the  senate  at  Brussels. 
Although  the  latter  circumstance  made  his  return  not 
very  credible,  nevertheless  the  remotest  possibility  of  it 
sobered  the  triumph  which  celebrated  his  departure. 
The  regent  herself  appears  to  have  been  undecided  what 
to  think  about  the  report ;  for,  in  a  fresh  letter  to  the 
king,  she  repeated  all  the  representations  and  arguments 
which  ought  to  restrain  him  from  restoring  this  minister. 
Granvella  himself,  in  his  correspondence  with  Barlaimont 
and  Viglius,  endeavored  to  keep  alive  this  rumor,  and  at 
least  to  alarm  with  fears,  however  unsubstantial,  the 
enemies  Avhom  he  could  no  longer  punish  by  his  presence. 
Indeed,  the  dread  of  the  influence  of  this  extraordinary 
man  was  so  exceedingly  great  that,  to  appease  it,  he  was 
at  last  driven  even  from  his  home  and  his  country. 

After  the  death  of  Pius  IV.,  Granvella  went  to  Rome, 
to  be  present  at  the  election  of  a  new  pope,  and  at  the 


iJEVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS*  113 

same  time  to  discharge  some  commissions  of  his  master, 
AV'hose  confidence  in  him  remained  unshaken.  Soon  after, 
Philip  made  him  viceroy  of  Naples,  where  he  succumbed 
to  the  seductions  of  the  climate,  and  the  spirit  which  no 
vicissitudes  could  bend  voluptuousness  overcame.  He 
w^as  sixty-two  years  old  when  the  king  allowed  him  to 
revisit  Spain,  where  he  continued  with  unlimited  powers 
to  administer  the  affairs  of  Italy.  A  gloomy  old  age,  and 
the  self-satisfied  pride  of  a  sexagenarian  administration 
made  him  a  harsh  and  rigid  judge  of  the  opinions  of 
others,  a  slave  of  custom,  and  a  tedious  panegyrist  of  past 
times.  But  the  policy  of  the  closing  century  had  ceased 
to  be  the  policy  of  the  opening  one.  A  new  and  younger 
ministry  were  soon  weary  of  so  imperious  a  superin- 
tendent, and  Philip  himself  began  to  shun  the  aged  coun- 
sellor, who  found  nothing  worthy  of  praise  but  the  deeds 
of  his  father.  Nevertheless,  when  the  conquest  of  Por- 
tugal called  Philip  to  Lisbon,  he  confided  to  the  cardinal 
the  care  of  his  Spanish  territories.  Finally,  on  an  Italian 
tour,  in  the  town  of  Mantua,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of 
his  life,  Granvella  terminated  his  long  existence  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  his  glory,  and  after  possessing  for  forty 
years  the  uninterrupted  confidence  of  his  king. 

THE   COUNCIL   OF    STATE. 

(1564.)  Immediately  upon  the  departure  of  the  min- 
ister, all  the  happy  results  which  were  promised  from  his 
withdrawal  were  fulfilled.  The  disaffected  nobles  re- 
sumed their  seats  in  the  council,  and  again  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  affairs  of  the  state  with  redoubled  zeal,  in 
order  to  give  no  room  for  regret  for  him  whom  they  had 
driven  away,  and  to  prove,  by  the  fortunate  administra- 
tion of  the  state,  that  his  services  were  not  indispensable. 
The  crowd  round  the  duchess  was  great.  All  vied  with 
one  another  in  readiness,  in  submission,  and  zeal  in  her 
service  ;  the  hours  of  night  were  not  allowed  to  stop  the 
transaction  of  pressing  business  of  state;  tlie  greatest 
unanimity  existed  between  the  three  councils,  the  best 
understanding  between  the  court  and  the  states.  From 
the  obliging  l^emper  of  the  Flemish  nobility  everything 


114       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLANDS. 

was  to  be  had,  as  soon  as  tlieir  pride  and  self-will  was 
flattered  by  confidence  and  obliging  treatment.  The 
regent  took  advantage  of  the  first  joy  of  the  nation  to 
beguile  them  into  a  vote  of  certain  taxes,  which,  under 
the  preceding  administration,  she  could  not  have  hoped 
to  extort.  In  this,  the  great  credit  of  the  nobility  effect- 
ually supported  her,  and  she  soon  learned  from  this 
nation  the  secret,  which  had  been  so  often  verified  in  the 
German  diet  —  that  much  must  be  demanded  in  order  to 
get  a  little. 

With  pleasure  did  the  regent  see  herself  emancipated 
from  her  long  thraldom;  the  emulous  industry  of  the 
nobility  lightened  for  her  the  burden  of  business,  and 
their  insinuating  humility  allowed  her  to  feel  the  full 
sweetness  of  power. 

(1564).  Granvella  had  been  overthrown,  but  his  party 
still  remained.  His  policy  lived  in  his  creatures,  whom 
he  left  behind  him  in  the  privy  council  and  in  the  cham- 
ber of  finance.  Hatred  still  smouldered  amongst  the 
factious  long  after  the  leader  was  banished,  and  the  names 
of  the  Orange  and  Royalist  parties,  of  tlie  Patriots  and 
Cardinalists  still  continued  to  divide  the  senate  and  to 
keep  up  the  flames  of  discoi'd.  Viglius  Van  Zuichem  Van 
Aytta,  president  of  the  privy  council,  state  counsellor 
and  keeper  of  the  seal,  was  now  looked  upon  as  the  most 
important  person  in  the  senate,  and  the  most  powerful 
prop  of  the  crown  and  the  tiara.  This  highly  meritorious 
old  man,  whom  we  have  to  thank  for  some  valuable  con- 
tributions towards  the  history  of  the  rebellion  of  the  Low 
Countries,  and  whose  confidential  correspondence  with 
his  friends  has  generally  been  the  guide  of  our  narrative, 
Avas  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  of  his  time,  as  well  as  a 
theologian  and  priest,  and  had  already,  under  the 
Emperor,  filled  the  most  important  offices.  Familiar 
intercourse  with  the  learned  men  who  adorned  tlie  age, 
and  at  the  head  of  whom  stood  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam, 
combined  with  frequent  travels  in  the  imperial  service, 
had  extended  the  sphere  of  his  information  and  experi- 
ence, and  in  many  points  raised  him  in  his  principles  and 
opinions  above  his  contemporaries.  The  fame  of  his 
erudition  filled  the  whole  century  in  which  he  lived,  and 


HE VOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  115 

has  handed  his  name  down  to  posterity.  When,  in  the 
year  1548,  the  connection  of  the  Netherlands  with  the 
German  empire  was  to  be  settled  at  the  Diet  of  Augs- 
burg, Charles  V.  sent  hither  this  statesman  to  manage  the 
interests  of  the  provinces ;  and  his  ability  principally 
succeeded  in  turning  the  negotiations  to  the  advantage  of 
the  Netherlands.  After  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  Viglius 
was  one  of  the  many  eminent  ministers  bequeathed  to 
Philip  by  his  father,  and  one  of  the  few  in  Avhom  he 
honored  his  memory.  The  fortune  of  the  minister,  Gran- 
vella,  Avith  whom  he  was  united  by  the  ties  of  an  early 
acquaintance,  raised  him  likewise  to  greatness ;  but  he 
did  not  share  the  fall  of  his  patron,  because  he  had  not 
participated  in  his  lust  of  power ;  nor,  consequently,  the 
hatred  Avhich  attached  to  him.  A  residence  of  twenty 
years  in  the  provinces,  where  the  most  important  affairs 
were  entrusted  to  him,  approved  loyalty  to  his  king,  and 
zealous  attachment  to  the  Roman  Catholic  tenets,  made 
him  one  of  the  most  distinguished  instruments  of  royalty 
in  the  Netherlands. 

Viglius  was  a  man  of  learning,  but  no  thinker;  an 
experienced  statesman,  but  without  an  enlightened  mind  ; 
of  an  intellect  not  sufficiently  powerful  to  break,  like  his 
friend  Erasmus,  the  fetters  of  error,  yet  not  sufficiently 
bad  to  employ  it,  like  his  predecessor,  Granvella,  in  the 
service  of  his  own  passions.  Too  weak  and  timid  to 
follow  boldly  the  guidance  of  his  reason,  he  preferred 
trusting  to  the  more  convenient  path  of  conscience  ;  a 
thing  was  just  so  soon  as  it  became  his  duty;  he  belonged 
to  those  honest  men  who  are  indispensable  to  bad  ones  ; 
fraud  reckoned  on  his  honesty.  Half  a  century  later  he 
would  have  received  his  immortality  from  the  freedom 
which  he  now  helped  to  subvert.  In  the  privy  council 
at  Brussels  he  was  the  servant  of  tyranny  ;  in  the  parlia- 
ment in  London,  or  in  the  senate  at  Amsterdam,  he 
would  have  died,  perhaps,  like  Thomas  More  or  Olden 
Barneveldt. 

In  the  Count  Barlaimont,  the  president  of  the  council 
of  finance,  the  opposition  had  a  no  less  formidable  antag- 
onist than  in  Viglius.  Historians  have  transmitted  but 
little  information  regarding  the  services  and  the  opinions 


116        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

of  this  man.  In  the  first  part  of  his  career  the  dazzling 
greatness  of  Cardinal  Granvella  seems  to  have  cast  a 
shade  over  him  ;  after  the  latter  had  disappeared  from  the 
stao-e  the  superiority  of  the  opi)Osite  party  kept  him 
dov^n,  bat  still  the  little  that  we  do  find  respecting  him 
throws  a  favorable  light  over  his  character.  More  than 
once  the  Prince  of  Orange  exerted  himself  to  detach 
him  from  the  interests  of  the  cardinal,  and  to  join  him 
to  his  own  party  —  sufticient  proof  that  he  placed  a 
value  on  the  prize.  All  his  efforts  failed,  which  shows 
that  he  had  to  do  with  no  vacillating  character.  More 
than  once  we  see  hini  alone,  of  all  the  members  of  the 
council,  stepping  forward  to  opi)ose  the  dominant  faction, 
and  protecting  against  universal  opposition  the  interests 
of  the  crown,  Avhich  were  in  momentary  peril  of  being 
sacrificed.  When  the  Prince  of  Orange  had  assembled 
the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece  in  his  own  palace,  with 
a  view  to  induce  them  to  come  to  a  preparatory  resolution 
for  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisition,  Barlaimont  was  the 
first  to  denounce  the  illegality  of  this  proceeding  and  to 
inform  tlie  regent  of  it^  Some  time  after  the  prince 
asked  him  if  the  regent  knew  of  that  assembly,  and  Bar- 
laimont hesitated  not  a  moment  to  avow  to  him  the  truth. 
All  the  steps  which  have  been  ascribed  to  him  bespeak  a 
man  whom  neither  influence  nor  fear  could  tempt, —  who, 
with  a  firm  courage  and  indomitable  constancy,  remained 
faithful  to  the  party  which  he  had  once  chosen,  but  who, 
it  must  at  the  same  time  be  confessed,  entertained  too 
proud  and  too  despotic  notions  to  liave  selected  any  other. 
Amongst  the  adherents  of  the  royal  party  at  Brussels, 
we  have,  further,  the  names  of  the  Duke  of  Arschot,  the 
Counts  of  Mansfeld,  Megen,  and  Aremberg  —  all  three 
native  Netherlanders ;  and  therefore,  as  it  appeared, 
bound  equally  with  the  whole  Netherlandish  nobility  to 
oppose  the  hierarchy  and  the  royal  power  in  their  native 
country.  So  much  the  inore  surprised  mnst  we  feel  at 
their  contrary  behavior,  and  which  is  indeed  the  more 
remarkable,  since  we  find  them  on  terms  of  friendship 
with  the  most  eminent  members  of  the  faction,  and  any- 
thing but  insensible  to  the  common  grievances  of  their 
country. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  117 

But  they  had  not  self-confidence  or  heroism  enough  to 
venture  on  an  unequal  contest  with  so  superior  an  antag- 
onist. With  a  cowardly  prudence  they  made  their  just 
discontent  submit  to  the  stern  law  of  necessity,  and 
imposed  a  hard  sacrifice  on  their  pride  because  their 
pampered  vanity  was  capable  of  nothing  better.  Too 
thrifty  and  too  discreet  to  wish  to  extort  from  the  justice 
or  the  fear  of  their  sovereign  the  certain  good  which 
they  already  possessed  from  his  voluntary  generosity,  or 
to  resign  a  real  happiness  in  order  to  preserve  the 
shadow  of  another,  they  rather  employed  the  projDitious 
moment  to  drive  a  traffic  with  their  constancy,  Avhich, 
from  the  general  defection  of  the  nobility,  had  now  risen 
in  value.  Caring  little  for  true  glory,  they  allowed  their 
ambition  to  decide  Avhich  party  they  should  take  ;  for 
the  ambition  of  base  minds  prefers  to  bow  beneath  the 
hard  yoke  of  compulsion  rather  than  submit  to  the  gentle 
sway  of  a  superior  intellect.  Small  would  have  been  the 
value  of  the  favor  conferred  had  they  bestowed  them- 
selves on  the  Prince  of  Orange ;  but  their  connection 
Avith  roj^alty  made  them  so  much  the  more  formidable  as 
opponents.  There  their  names  would  have  been  lost 
among  his  numerous  adherents  and  in  the  splendor  of 
their  rival.  On  the  almost  deserted  side  of  the  court 
their  insignificant  merit  acquired  lustre. 

The  families  of  Nassau  and  Croi  (to  the  latter  belonged 
the  Duke  of  Arschot)  had  for  several  reigns  been  com- 
petitors for  influence  and  honor,  and  their  rivalry  had 
kept  up  an  old  feud  between  their  families,  which  relig- 
ious differences  finally  made  irreconcilable.  The  house 
of  Croi  from  time  immemorial  had  been  renowned  for  its 
devout  and  strict  observance  of  papistic  rites  and  cere- 
monies ;  the  Counts  of  Nassau  had  gone  over  to  the  new 
sect  —  sufficient  reasons  why  Philip  of  Croi,  Duke  of 
Arschot,  should  prefer  a  party  which  placed  him  the 
most  decidedly  in  opposition  to  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
The  court  did  not  fail  to  take  advantage  of  this  private 
feud,  and  to  oppose  so  important  an  enemy  to  the  in- 
creasing influence  of  the  house  of  Nassau  in  the  republic. 
The  Counts  Mansfeld  and  Megen  had  till  lately  been  the 
confidential  friends  of  Count  Egmont.     In  common  with 


118       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

him  they  had  raised  their  voice  against  the  minister,  had 
joined  him  in  resisting  the  Inquisition  and  the  edicts, 
and  had  hitherto  held  with  him  as  far  as  honor  and  duty 
would  permit.  But  at  these  limits  the  three  friends  now 
separated.  Egmont's  unsuspecting  virtue  incessantly 
hurried  him  forwards  on  the  road  to  ruin ;  Mansfeld  and 
Megen,  admonished  of  the  danger,  began  in  good  time 
to  think  of  a  safe  retreat.  There  still  exist  letters  which 
were  interchanged  between  the  Counts  Egmont  and 
Mansfeld,  and  which,  although  written  at  a  later  period, 
give  us  a  true  picture  of  their  former  friendship.  "  If," 
replied  Count  Mansfeld  to  his  friend,  wlio  in  an  amicable 
manner  had  reproved  him  for  his  defection  to  the  king, 
"if  formerly  I  was  of  opinion  that  the  general  good 
made  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisition,  the  mitigation  of 
the  edicts,  and  the  removal  of  the  Cardinal  Granvelhi 
necessary,  the  king  has  now  acquiesced  in  this  wish  and 
removed  the  cause  of  complaint.  We  have  already  done 
too  much  against  the  majesty  of  the  sovereign  and  the 
authority  of  the  church ;  it  is  high  time  for  us  to  turn, 
if  we  would  wish  to  meet  the  king,  when  he  comes,  with 
open  brow  and  without  anxiety.  As  regards  my  own 
person,  I  do  not  dread  his  vengeance  ;  with  confident 
courage  I  would  at  his  first  summons  present  myself  in 
Spain,  and  boldly  abide  my  sentence  from  his  justice  and 
goodness.  I  do  not  say  this  as  if  I  doubted  whether 
Count  Egmont  can  assert  the  same,  but  he  will  act  pru- 
dently in  looking  more  to  his  own  safety,  and  in  removing 
suspicion  from  his  actions.  If  I  hear,"  he  says,  in  con- 
clusion, "that  he  has  allowed  my  admonitions  to  have 
their  due  weight,  our  friendship  continues;  if  not,  I  feel 
myself  in  that  case  strong  enough  to  sacrifice  all  human 
ties  to  my  duty  and  to  honor." 

The  enlarged  power  of  the  nobility  exposed  the  repub- 
lic to  almost  a  greater  evil  than  that  which  it  had  just 
escaped  by  the  removal  of  the  minister.  Impoverished 
by  long  habits  of  luxury,  which  at  the  same  time  had 
relaxed  their  morals,  and  to  which  they  were  now  too 
much  addicted  to  be  able  to  renounce  them,  they  yielded 
to  the  perilous  opportunity  of  indulging  their  ruling  in- 
clination, and  of  again  repairing  the  expiring  lustre  of 


REVOLT  OF  THE  XETHERLANDS.        119 

their  fortunes.  Extravagance  brought  on  the  thirst  for 
gain,  and  this  introduced  bribery.  Secular  and  ecclesias- 
tical offices  were  publicly  put  up  to  sale ;  posts  of  honor, 
privileges,  and  patents  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidder ; 
even  justice  was  made  a  trade.  Whom  the  privy  council 
had  condemned  was  acquitted  by  the  council  of  state, 
and  what  the  former  refused  to  grant  was  to  be  pur- 
chased from  the  latter.  The  council  of  state,  indeed, 
subsequently  retorted  the  charge  on  the  two  other  coun- 
cils, but  it  forgot  that  it  was  its  own  example  that  cor- 
rupted them.  The  shrewdness  of  rapacity  opened  new 
sources  of  gain.  Life,  liberty,  and  religion  were  insured 
for  a  certain  sum,  like  landed  estates ;  for  gold,  murder- 
ers and  malefactors  were  free,  and  the  nation  was  plun- 
dered by  a  lottery.  The  servants  and  creatures  of  the 
state,  counsellors  and  governors  of  provinces,  were,  with- 
out regard  to  rank  or  merit,  pushed  into  the  most  impor- 
tant posts ;  whoever  had  a  petition  to  present  at  court 
had  to  make  his  way  through  the  governors  of  provinces 
and  their  inferior  servants.  No  artifice  of  seduction  was 
spared  to  implicate  in  these  excesses  the  private  secretary 
of  the  duchess,  Thomas  Armenteros,  a  man  up  to  this 
time  of  irreproachable  character.  By  pretended  pro- 
fessions of  attachment  and  friendship  a  successful  attempt 
was  made  to  gain  his  confidence,  and  by  luxurious  enter- 
tainments to  undermine  his  principles ;  the  seductive 
example  infected  his  morals,  and  new  Avants  overcame 
his  hitherto  incorruptible  integrity.  He  was  now  blind 
to  abuses  in  which  he  Avas  an  accomplice,  and  drew  a 
veil  over  the  crimes  of  others  in  order  at  the  same  time 
to  cloak  his  own.  With  his  knowledge  the  royal  ex- 
chequer was  robbed,  and  the  objects  of  the  government 
were  defeated  through  a  corrupt  administration  of  its 
revenues.  Meanwhile  the  regent  wandered  on  in  a  fond 
dream  of  power  and  activity,  which  the  flattery  of  tlie 
nobles  artfully  knew  how  to  foster.  The  ambition  of  the 
factious  played  with  the  foibles  of  a  woman,  and  with 
empty  signs  and  an  humble  show  of  submission  pur- 
chased real  power  from  her.  She  soon  belonged  entirely 
to  the  faction,  and  had  imperceptibly  changed  her  prin- 
ciples.    Diametrically  02:)posing  all  her  former  i^roceed- 


120       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

ings,  even  in  direct  violation  of  her  duty,  she  now 
brought  before  the  council  of  state,  which  was  swayed 
by  the  faction,  not  only  questions  wliich  belonged  to  the 
other  councils,  but  also  the  suggestions  which  Viglius 
had  made  to  her  in  private,  in  the  same  way  as  formerly, 
under  Granvella's  administration,  she  had  improperly 
neglected  to  consult  it  at  all.  Nearly  all  business  and  all 
influence  were  now  diverted  to  the  governors  of  prov- 
inces. All  petitions  were  directed  to  them,  by  them  all 
lucrative  appointments  were  bestowed.  Their  usurpations 
were  indeed  carried  so  far  that  law  proceedings  were  with- 
drawn from  the  municipal  authorities  of  the  towns  and 
brought  before  their  own  tribunals.  The  respectability  of 
the  provincial  courts  decreased  as  theirs  extended,  and 
with  the  respectability  of  the  municipal  functionaries  the 
administration  of  justice  and  civil  order  declined.  The 
smaller  courts  soon  followed  the  example  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  The  spirit  which  ruled  the  council 
of  state  at  Brussels  soon  diffused  itself  through  the  prov- 
inces. Bribery,  indulgences,  robbery,  venality  of  justice, 
were  universal  in  the  courts  of  judicature  of  the  country; 
morals  degenerated,  and  the  new  sects  availed  themselves 
of  this  all-pervading  licentiousness  to  propagate  their 
opinions.  The  religious  indifference  or  toleration  of  tlie 
nobles,  Avho,  either  themselves  inclined  to  the  side  of  the 
innovators,  or,  at  least,  detested  the  Inquisition  as  an 
instrument  of  despotism,  had  mitigated  the  rigor  of  the 
religious  edicts,  and  through  the  letters  of  indemnity, 
which  were  bestowed  on  many  Protestants,  the  holy 
office  was  deprived  of  its  best  victims.  In  no  way  could 
tlie  nobility  more  agreeably  announce  to  the  nation  its 
pi-esent  share  in  the  government  of  the  country  than  by 
sacrificing  to  it  the  hated  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  — 
and  to  this  inclination  impelled  them  still  more  than  the 
dictates  of  policy.  The  nation  passed  in  a  moment  from 
the  most  oppressive  constraint  of  intolerance  into  a  state 
of  freedom,  to  Avhich,  however,  it  had  already  become 
too  unaccustomed  to  support  it  with  moderation.  The 
inquisitors,  deprived  of  the  support  of  the  municipal 
authorities,  found  themselves  an  object  of  derision  rather 
than  of  fear.     In  Bruges  the  town  council  caused  even 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLANDS.        121 

some  of  their  own  servants  to  be  placed  in  confinement, 
a)id  kej^t  on  bread  and  water,  for  attempting  to  lay  hands 
upon  a  supposed  heretic.  About  this  very  time  the  mob 
in  Antwerp,  having  made  a  futile  attempt  to  rescue  a 
person  charged  with  heresy  from  the  holy  office,  there 
was  placarded  in  the  public  market-place  an  inscription, 
written  in  blood,  to  the  effect  that  a  number  of  persons 
had  bound  themselves  by  oath  to  avenge  the  death  of 
that  innocent  person. 

From  the  corruption  which  pervaded  the  whole  council 
of  state,  the  piivy  council,  and  the  chamber  of  finance, 
in  which  Viglius  and  Barlnimont  were  presidents,  had  as 
yet,  for  the  most  part,  kept  themselves  pure. 

As  the  faction  could  not  succeed  in  insinuating  their 
adherents  into  those  two  councils  the  only  course  open  to 
them  was,  if  possible,  to  render  both  inefficient,  and  to 
transfer  their  business  to  the  council  of  state.  To  carry 
out  this  desio;n  the  Prince  of  Orange  sought  to  secure  the 
co-operation  of  the  other  state  cou'nsellors.  "  They  Avere 
called,  indeed,  senators,"  he  frequently  declared  to  his 
adherents,  "but  others  possessed  the  power,  _  If  gold  was 
wanted  to  pay  the  troops,  or  when  the  question  was  how 
the  spreading  heresy  was  to  be  repressed,  or  the  people 
kept  in  order,  then  they  were  consulted ;  although  in  fact 
they  were  the  guardians  neither  of  the  treasury  nor  of  the 
laws,  but  only'the  organs  through  which  the  other  two 
councils  operated  on  the  state.  And  yet  alone  they  were 
equal  to  the  whole  administration  of  the  country,  which 
had  been  uselessly  portioned  out  amongst  three  separate 
chambers.  If  they  would  among  themselves  only  agree 
to  reunite  to  the  council  of  state  these  two  important 
branches  of  government,  which  had  been  dissevered  from 
it,  one  soul  might  animate  the  whole  body."  A  plan  Avas 
preliminarily  and  secretly  agreed  on,  in  accordance  with 
which  twelve  new  Knights  of  the  Fleece  were  to  be  added 
to  the  council  of  state,  the  administration  of  justice 
restored  to  the  tribunal  at  Malines,  to  which  it  originally 
belonged,  the  granting  of  letters  of  grace,  patents,  and  so 
forth,  assigned  to  the  president,  Viglius,  while  the  man- 
ao-ement  of  the  finances  should  be  committed  to  it.  All 
the  difficulties,  indeed,  which  the  distrust  of  the   court 


122        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

and  its  jealousy  of  the  increasing  power  of  the  nobility 
would  oppose  to  this  innovation  were  foreseen  and  j)ro- 
vided  against.  In  order  to  constrain  the  regent's  assent, 
some  of  the  principal  officers  of  the  army  were  put  for- 
ward as  a  cloak,  who  were  to  annoy  the  court  at  Brussels 
with  boisterous  demands  for  their  arrears  of  pay,  and  in 
case  of  refusal  to  threaten  a  rebellion.  It  was  also  con- 
trived to  have  the  regent  assailed  with  numerous  petitions 
and  memorials  complaining  of  the  delays  of  justice,  and 
exaggerating  the  danger  which  was  to  be  appi'ehended 
from  the  daily  growth  of  heresy.  Nothing  was  omitted 
to  darken  the  picture  of  the  disorganized  state  of  society, 
of  the  abuse  of  justice,  and  of  the  deficiency  in  the 
finances,  which  was  made  so  alarming  that  she  awoke 
with  terror  from  the  delusion  of  prosperity  in  which  she 
had  hitherto  cradled  herself.  She  called  the  three  coun- 
cils together  to  consult  them  on  the  means  by  which 
these  disorders  were  to  bo  remedied.  The  majority  was 
in  favor  of  sending  an  extraordinary  ambassador  to 
Spain,  who  by  a  circumstantial  and  vivid  delineation 
should  make  the  king  acquainted  Avith  the  true  position 
of  affairs,  and  if  possible  prevail  on  him  to  adopt  efficient 
measures  of  reform.  This  jn-oposition  was  opposed  by 
Viglius,  who,  however,  had  not  the  slighest  suspicion  of 
the  secret  designs  of  the  faction.  "The  evil  complained 
of,"  he  said,  "is  undoubtedly  great,  and  one  which  can 
no  longer  be  neglected  with  impunity,  but  it  is  not  irre- 
mediable by  ourselves.  The  administration  of  justice  is 
certainly  crippled,  but  the  blame  of  this  lies  with  the 
nobles  themselves  ;  by  their  contemptuous  treatment  they 
have  thrown  discredit  on  the  municipal  authorities,  who, 
moreover,  are  very  inadequately  supported  by  the  gov- 
ernors of  provinces.  If  heresy  is  on  tlie  increase  it  is 
because  the  secular  arm  has  deserted  the  spiritual  judges, 
and  because  the  lower  orders,  following  the  example  of  the 
nobles,  have  thrown  off  all  respect  for  those  in  authority. 
The  provinces  are  undoubtedly  oppressed  by  a  heavy 
debt,  but  it  has  not  been  accumulated,  as  alleged,  by  any 
malversation  of  the  revenues,  but  by  the  expenses  of 
former  wars  and  the  king's  present  exigMices;  still  wise 
and  prudent  measures  of  finance  might  in  a  short  time 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        123 

remove  the  burden.  If  the  council  of  state  would  not  be 
so  profuse  of  its  indulgences,  its  charters  of  immunity, 
and  its  exemptions ;  if  it  would  commence  the  reforma- 
tion of  morals  with  itself,  show  greater  respect  to  the 
laws,  and  do  what  lies  in  its  power  to  restore  to  the 
municipal  functionaries  their  former  consideration  ;  in 
short,  if  the  councils  and  the  governors  of  provinces 
would  only  fulfil  their  own  duties  the  pi-esent  grounds  of 
complaint  would  soon  be  removed.  Why,  then,  send  an 
ambassador  to  Spain,  when  as  yet  nothing  has  occurred 
to  justify  so  extraordinary  an  expedient?  If,  however, 
the  council  thinks  otherwise,  he  would  not  oppose  the 
general  voice  ;  only  he  must  make  it  a  condition  of  his 
concurrence  that  the  principal  instruction  of  the  envoy 
should  be  to  entreat  the  king  to  make  them  a  speedy 
visit." 

There  was  but  one  voice  as  to  the  choice  of  an  envoy. 
Of  all  the  Flemish  nobles  Count  Egmont  was  the  only  one 
whose  appointment  would  give  equal  satisfaction  to  both 
parties.  His  hatred  of  the  Inquisition,  his  patriotic  and 
liberal  sentiments,  and  the  unblemished  integrity  of  his 
character,  gave  to  the  republic  sufficient  surety  for  his 
conduct,  while  for  the  reasons  already  mentioned  he  could 
not  fail  to  be  welcome  to  the  king.  Moreover,  Egmont's 
personal  figure  and  demeanor  were  calculated  on  his  first 
appearance  to  make  that  favorable  impression  which  goes 
8o  far  towards  winning  the  hearts  of  princes;  and  his 
engaging  carriage  would  come  to  the  aid  of  his  eloquence, 
und  enforce  his  petition  with  those  persuasive  arts  which 
are  indispensable  to  the  success  of  even  the  most  trifling 
suits  to  royalty.  Egmont  himself,  too,  wished  for  the 
embassy,  as  it  would  afford  him  the  opportunity  of  adjust- 
ing, personally,  matters  with  Ins  sovereign. 

About  this  time  the  Council,  or  rather  synod,  of  Trent 
closed  its  sittings,  and  published  its  decrees  to  the  Avhole 
of  Christendom.  But  tliese  canons,  far  from  accomplish- 
ing the  object  for  which  the  synod  was  originally  con- 
vened, and  satisfying  the  expectation  of  religious  parties, 
had  rather  widened  the  breach  between  them,  and  made 
the  schism  irremediable  and  eternal. 

The   labors   of    the    synod   instead   of   purifying   the 


124       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Eomish   Church  from  its  corruptions  had  only  reduced 
the  latter  to  greater  deliniteness  and  precision,  and  in- 
vested them  with  the  sanction  of   authority.      All  the 
subtilties  of  its  teaching,  all  the  arts  and  usurpations  of 
the  Roman  See,  which  had  hitherto  rested  more  on  arbi- 
trary usage,  were  now  passed  into  laws  and  raised  into  a 
system.    The  uses  and  abuses  which  during  the  barbarous 
times  of  ignorance  and  superstition  had  crept  into  Chris- 
tianity were  now  declared  essential  parts  of  its  worship, 
and  anathemas  were  denounced  upon  all  who  should  dare 
to  contradict  the  dogmas  or  neglect  the  observances  of 
the  Romish  communion.      All  were  anathematized  who 
should  either  presume  to  doubt  the  miraculous  poAver  of 
relics,  and  refuse  to  honor  the  bones  of  martyrs,  or  should 
be  so  bold  as  to  doubt  the  availing  efficacy  of  the  inter- 
cession of  saints.     The    power  of   granting  indulgences, 
the  first  source  of  the  defection  from  the  See  of  Rome, 
Avas  now  propounded  in  an  irrefragable  article  of  faith  ; 
and  the  principle  of  monasticism  sanctioned  by  an  express 
decree  of    the  synod,  which    allowed  males  to  take  the 
vows  at  sixteen  and  females  at  twelve.     And  while  all 
the  opinions  of  the  Protestants  were,  without  exception, 
condemned,  no  indulgence  was  shown  to   their  errors  or 
weaknesses,  nor  a  single  step  taken  to  win  them  back  by 
mildness  to  the  bosom  of  the  mother  church.     Amongst 
the  Protestants  the  wearisome  records  of  the  subtle  delib- 
erations of  the  synod,  and  the  absurdity  of  its  decisions, 
increased,  if  possible,  the  hearty  contempt  which  they  had 
long  entertained  for  popery,  and   laid  open  to  their  con- 
troversialists new  and  hitherto  unnoticed  points  of  attack. 
It  was  an  ill-judged   step  to  bring  the  mysteries  of  the 
church  too  close  to  the  glaring  torch   of  reason,  and  to 
fight  with  syllogisms  for  the  tenets  of  a  blind  belief. 

"Moreover,  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  were  not 
satisfactory  even  to  all  the  powers  in  communion  with 
Rome.  France  rejected  them  entirely,  both  because  she 
did  not  wish  to  displease  the  Huguenots,  and  also  because 
she  was  offended  by  the  supremacy  which  the  pope  arro- 
gated to  himself  over  the  council;  some  of  the  Roman 
C/atholic  princes  of  Gorinany  likewise  declared  against  it. 
Little,  however,  as  Philij)  11.  was  pleased  with  many  of 


EEYOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEKLAXDS.  125 

its  articles,  which  trenched  too  closely  upon  his  own 
rights,  for  no  monarch  was  ever  more  jealous  of  his  jjre- 
rogative ;  highly  as  the  pope's  assumption  of  control  over 
the  council,  and  its  arbitrary,  precipitate  dissolution  had 
offended  him ;  just  as  was  his  indignation  at  the  slight 
wliich  the  pope  had  put  upon  his  ambassador ;  he  never- 
theless acknowedged  the  decrees  of  the  synod,  even  in 
its  present  form,  because  it  favored  his  darling  object  — 
the  extirpation  of  heresy.  Political  considerations  were 
all  postponed  to  this  one  religious  object,  and  he  com- 
manded the  publication  and  enforcement  of  its  canons 
throughout  his  dominions;. 

The  spirit  of  revolt,  which  was  diffused  through  the 
Belgian  provinces,  scarcely  required  this  new  stimulus. 
There  the  minds  of  men  were  in  a  ferment,  and  tlie  char- 
acter of  the  Romish  Church  had  sunk  almost  to  the  lowest 
point  of  contempt  in  the  general  opinion.  Under  such 
circumstances  the  imperious  and  frequently  injudicious 
decrees  of  the  council  could  not  fail  of  being  higlily 
offensive ;  but  Philip  II.  could  not  belie  his  religious 
character  so  far  as  to  allow  a  different  religion  to  a  por- 
tion of  his  subjects,  even  though  they  might  live  on  a 
different  soil  and  under  different  laws  from  the  rest. 
The  regent  was  strictly  enjoined  to  exact  in  the  Nether- 
lands the  same  obedience  to  the  decrees  of  Trent  Avhich 
was  yielded  to  tliem  in  Spain  and  Italy. 

They  met,  however,  with  the  warmest  opposition  in  the 
council  of  state  at  Brussels.  "The  nation,"  William  of 
Orange  declared,  "neither  would  nor  could  acknowledge 
them,  since  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  opposed  to  the 
fundamental  principles  of  their  constitution ;  and,  for 
similar  reasons,  they  had  even  been  rejected  by  sevei-al 
Roman  Catholic  princes."  The  whole  council  nearly  Avas 
on  the  side  of  Orange;  a  decided  majority  were  for 
entreating  the  king  either  to  recall  the  decrees  entirely  or 
at  least  to  publish  them  under  certain  limitations.  This 
proposition  was  resisted  by  Viglius,  who  insisted  on  a 
strict  and  literal  obedience  to  the  royal  commands.  "The 
church,"  he  said,  "had  in  all  ages  maintained  the  purity 
of  its  doctrines  and  the  strictness  of  its  discipline  l»y 
means   of   such   general   councils.     Xo   more   efficacious 


126        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

remedy  could  be  opposed  to  the  errors  of  opinion  which 
had  so  long  distracted  their  country  than  these  very 
decrees,  the  rejection  of  which  is  now  urged  by  the  coun- 
cil of  state.  Even  if  they  are  occasionally  at  variance 
with  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  citizens  this  is  an 
evil  which  can  easily  be  met  by  a  judicious  and  temperate 
application  of  them.  For  the  rest  it  redounds  to  the 
honor  of  our  sovereign,  the  King  of  Spain,  that  he  alone, 
of  all  the  princes  of  his  time,  refuses  to  yield  his  better 
judgment  to  necessity,  and  will  not,  for  any  fear  of  conse- 
quences, reject  measures  which  the  welfare  of  the  church 
demands,  and  which  the  happiness  of  his  subjects  makes 
a  duty." 

But  the  decrees  also  contained  several  matters  which 
affected  the  rights  of  the  crown  itself.  Occasion  was 
therefore  taken  of  this  fact  to  propose  that  these  sections 
at  least  should  be  omitted  from  the  proclamation.  By 
this  means  the  king  might,  it  was  argued,  be  relieved 
from  these  obnoxious  and  degrading  articles  by  a  happy 
expedient;  the  national  liberties  of  the  Netherlands  might 
be  advanced  as  the  pretext  for  the  omission,  and  the 
name  of  the  republic  lent  to  cover  this  encroachment  on 
the  authority  of  the  synod.  But  the  king  had  caused 
the  decrees  to  be  received  and  enforced  in  his  other 
dominions  unconditionally;  and  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  he  would  give  the  other  Roman  Catholic  powers 
such  an  example  of  opposition,  and  himself  undermine 
the  edifice  wiiose  foundation  he  had  been  so  assiduous  in 
laying. 

COUNT    EGMONT   IN    SPAIN. 

Count  Egmont  was  despatched  to  Spain  to  make  a 
forcible  representation  to  the  king  on  the  subject  of  these 
decrees;  to  persuade  him,  if  possible,  to  adopt  a  milder 
policy  towards  his  Protestant  subjects,  and  to  propose  to 
him  the  incorporation  of  the  three  councils,  was  the  com- 
mission he  received  from  the  malcontents.  By  the  regent 
he  was  charged  to  apprise  the  monarch  of  the  refrnotory 
spirit  of  the  people ;  to  convince  him  of  the  impossibility 
of  onforcinir  these  edicts  of  religion  in  thoir  full  sov?ritv; 
and   lastly  to  acquaint  him  with  the  bad  state  of   the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       127 

military  defences  and  the  exhausted  condition  of  the  ex- 
chequer. 

Tlie  count's  public  instructions  were  drawn  up  by  the 
President  Viglius.  They  contained  heavy  complaints  of 
the  decay  of  justice,  the  growth  of  heresy,  and  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  treasury.  He  was  also  to  press  urgently 
a  personal  visit  from  the  king  to  the  Netherlands.  The 
rest  was  left  to  the  eloquence  of  the  envoy,  who  received 
a  hint  from  the  regent  not  to  let  so  fair  an  opportunity 
escape  of  establishing  himself  in  the  favor  of  his  sov- 
ereign. 

The  terms  in  which  the  count's  instructions  and  the 
representations  which  he  was  to  make  to  the  king  were 
drawn  up  appeared  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  far  too 
vague  and  general.  "The  president's  statement,"  he 
said,  "  of  our  grievances  comes  very  far  short  of  the 
truth.  How  can  the  king  apply  the  suitable  remedies  if 
we  conceal  from  him  the  full  extent  of  the  evil  ?  Let  us 
not  represent  the  numbers  of  the  heretics  inferior  to  what 
it  is  in  reality.  Let  us  candidly  acknow  ledge  that  they 
SAvarm  in  every  province  and  in  every  hamlet,  however 
small.  Neither  let  us  disguise  from  him  the  truth  that 
they  despise  the  penal  statutes  nnd  entertain  but  little 
reverence  for  the  government.  What  good  can  come  of 
this  concealment  ?  Let  us  rather  openly  avow  to  tlie 
king  that  the  republic  cannot  long  continue  in  its  present 
condition.  The  privy  council  indeed  will  perhaps  pro- 
nounce differently,  for  to  them  the  existing  disorders  are 
welcome.  For  what  else  is  the  source  of  the  abuse  of 
justice  and  the  universal  corruption  of  the  courts  of  law 
but  its  insatiable  rapacity?  How  otherwise  can  the  pomp 
and  scandalous  luxurv  of  its  members,  whom  we  have 
seen  rise  from  the  dust,  be  supported  if  not  by  bribery? 
Do  not  the  people  daily  complain  that  no  other  key  but 
gold  can  open  an  access  to  them  ;  and  do  not  even  their 
quarrels  prove  how  little  they  are  swnyed  by  a  care  for 
the  common  weal?  Are  they  likely  to  consult  the  public 
good  who  are  the  slaves  of  their  private  passions  ?  Do 
they  think  forsooth  that  Ave,  the  governors  of  the  prov- 
inces nre,  with  our  soldiers,  to  stnnd  rendy  at  the  beck 
and  call  of  an  infamous  lictor  ?     Let  them  set  bounds  to 


128        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

their  indulgences  and  free  pardons  which  they  so  lavishly 
bestow  on  the  very  persons  to  whom  Ave  think  it  just  and 
expedient  to  deny  thera.  No  one  can  remit  the  punish- 
ment of  a  crime  without  sinning  against  the  society  and 
contributing  to  the  increase  of  the  general  evil.  To  my 
mind,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  to  avow  it,  the  distribution 
amono-st  so  many  councils  of  the  state  secrets  and  the 
affairs  of  government  has  always  appeared  highly  objec- 
tionable. The  council  of  state  is  sufficient  for  all  the 
duties  of  the  administration ;  several  patriots  have  al- 
ready felt  this  in  silence,  and  I  now  openly  declare  it.  It 
is  ray  decided  conviction  that  the  only  sufficient  remedy 
for  all  the  evils  complained  of  is  to  merge  the  other  two 
chambers  in  the  council  of  state.  This  is  the  point  which 
we  must  endeavor  to  obtain  from  the  king,  or  the  present 
embassy,  like  all  others,  will  be  entirely  useless  and  in- 
effectual." The  prince  now  laid  before  the  assembled 
senate  the  plan  which  we  have  already  described.  Vig- 
lius,  against  whom  this  new  proposition  was  individually 
and  mainly  directed,  and  whose  eyes  were  now  suddenly 
opened,  Avas  ovei-come  by  the  violence  of  his  vexation. 
The  ao-itation  of  his  feelin2;s  was  too  much  for  his  feeble 
body,  and  he  was  found,  on  the  following  morning,  para- 
lyzed by  apoplexy,  and  in  danger  of  his  life. 

His  place  was  supplied  by  Jaachira  Hopper,  a  member 
of  the  privy  council  at  Brussels,  a  man  of  old-fashioned 
morals  and  unblemished  integrity,  the  president's  most 
trusted  and  worthiest  friend.*  To  meet  the  Avishes  of 
the  Orange  party  he  made  some  additions  to  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  ambassador,  relating  chiefly  to  the  abolition 
of  the  Inquisition  and  the  incorporation  of  the  three 
councils,  not  so  much  Avith  the  consent  of  the  regent  as  in 
the  absence  of  her  prohibition.  Upon  Count  Egmont 
taking  leave  of  the  president,  Avho  had  recovered  froni 
his  attack,  the  latter  requested  him  to  procure  in  Spain 
])ermission  to  resign  his  appointment.  His  day,  he  de- 
clared, was  past;  like  the  example  of  his  friend  and 
predecessor,  Granvella,  he  Avished  to  retire  into  the  quiet 

*  Vita  Vigl.  §  89.  The  person  from  whose  memoirs  I  have  already  drawn 
so  many  illustrations  of  the  times  of  this  epoch.  His  subsequent  iourney 
to  Spain  gave  rise  to  the  correspondence  between  him  and  the  president, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  documents  for  ou^' history. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        129 

of  private  life,  and  to  anticipate  the  uncertainty  of 
fortune.  His  genius  warned  him  of  impending  storm,  by 
Avhich  he  could  have  no  desire  to  be  overtaken. 

Count  Egmont  embarked  on  his  journey  to  Spain  in 
January,  1565,  and  was  received  there  with  a  kindness 
and  respect  which  none  of  his  rank  had  ever  before  experi- 
enced. The  nobles  of  Castile,  taught  by  the  king's 
example  to  conquer  their  feelings,  or  rather,  true  to  his 
policy,  seemed  to  have  laid  aside  their  ancient  grudge 
against  the  Flemish  nobilitv,  and  vied  with  one  another 
in  winning  his  heart  by  their  affability.  All  his  private 
matters  were  immediately  settled  to  his  wishes  by  the 
king,  nay,  even  his  expectations  exceeded ;  and  during 
the  whole  j^eriod  of  his  stay  he  had  am]ile  cause  to  boast 
of  the  hospitality  of  the  monarch.  The  latter  assured 
him  in  the  strongest  terms  of  his  love  for  his  Belgian 
subjects,  and  held  out  hopes  of  his  acceding  eventually  to 
the  general  wish,  and  remitting  somewhat  of  the  severity 
of  the  religious  edicts.  At  the  same  time,  however,  he 
api^ointed  in  Madrid  a  commission  of  theologians  to  whom 
lie  jjropounded  the  question,  "  Is  it  necessary  to  grant  to 
the  provinces  the  religious  toleration  they  demand  ?  "  As 
the  majority  of  them  were  of  opinion  that  the  peculiar 
constitution  of  the  Ketherlands,  and  the  fear  of  a  rebellion 
might  well  excuse  a  degree  of  forbearance  in  their  case, 
the  question  Avas  repeated  more  pointedly.  "  He  did  not 
seek  to  know,"  he  said,  "if  he  might  do  so,  but  if  he 
must."  When  the  latter  question  was  answered  in  the 
negative,  he  rose  from  his  seat,  and  kneeling  down  before 
a  crucifix  prayed  in  these  words :  "Almiglity  Majesty, 
suffer  me  not  at  any  time  to  fall  so  low  as  to  consent  to 
reign  over  those  who  reject  thee!"  In  perfect  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  of  this  prayer  were  the  measures 
which  he  resolved  to  adopt  in  the  Netherlands.  On  the 
article  of  religion  this  monarch  had  taken  his  resolution 
once  forever ;  urgent  necessity  might,  pej-haps,  have 
constrained  him  temporarily  to  suspend  the  execution  of 
the  penal  statutes,  but  never,  formally,  to  repeal  them 
entirely,  or  even  to  modify  them.  In  vain  did  Egmont 
represent  to  him  that  the  public  execution  of  the  heretics 
daily  augmented  the  number  of  their  followers,  while  the 


130       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

courage  and  even  joy  with  which  they  met  tlieir  death  filled 
the  spectators  with  the  deepest  admiration,  and  awakened 
in  them  high  opinions  of  a  doctrine  which  could  make 
such  heroes  of  its  disciples.  This  rejiresentation  was  not 
indeed  lost  upon  the  king,  but  it  had  a  very  different 
effect  from  what  it  was  intended  to  produce.  In  order 
to  prevent  these  seductive  scenes,  without,  however,  com- 
promising the  severity  of  the  edicts,  he  fell  upon  an 
expedient,  and  ordered  that  in  future  the  executions 
should  take  place  in  private.  The  answer  of  the  king  on 
the  subject  of  the  embassy  was  given  to  the  count  in 
writing,  and  addressed  to  the  regent.  The  king,  when 
he  granted  him  an  audience  to  take  leave,  did  not  omit 
to  call  him  to  account  for  his  behavior  to  Granvella,  and 
alluded  particularly  to  the  livery  invented  in  derision  of 
the  cardinal.  Egmont  protested  that  the  whole  affair 
had  originated  in  a  convivial  joke,  and  nothing  was 
further  from  their  meaning  than  to  derogate  in  the  least 
from  the  respect  that  was  due  to  royalty.  "  If  he  knew," 
he  said,  "  that  any  individual  among  them  had  entertained 
such  disloyal  thoughts  he  himself  would  challenge  him  to 
answer  for  it  with  his  life." 

At  his  departure  the  monarch  made  him  a  present  of 
fifty  thousand  florins,  and  engaged,  moreover,  to  furnish 
a  portion  for  his  daughter  on  her  marriage.  He  also 
consigned  to  his  care  the  young  Farnese  of  Parma,  whom, 
to  gratify  the  regent,  his  mother,  he  was  sending  to 
Brussels.  The  king's  pretended  mildness,  and  his  profes- 
sions of  regard  for  the  Belgian  nation,  deceived  the  open- 
hearted  Fleming.  Happy  in  the  idea  of  being  the  bearer 
of  so  much  felicity  to  his  native  country,  when  in  fact  it 
Avas  more  remote  than  ever,  he  quitted  Madrid  satisfied 
beyond  measure  to  think  of  the  joy  with  which  the  prov- 
inces would  welcome  the  message  of  their  good  king ;  but 
the  opening  of  the  royal  answer  in  the  council  of  state  at 
Brussels  disappointed  all  these  pleasing  hopes.  "Al- 
though in  regard  to  the  religious  edicts,"  this  was  its 
tenor,  "his  resolve  was  firm  and  immovable,  and  he 
would  rather  lose  a  thousand  lives  than  consent  to  alter 
a  single  letter  of  it,  still,  moved  by  the  representations  of 
Count  Egmont,  he  was,  on  the  other  hand,  equally  deter- 


REVOLT    OF    THE    JvETHERLANDS.  131 

mined  not  to  leave  any  gentle  means  untried  to  guard  tlie 
people  against  the  delusions  of  heresy,  and  so  to  avert 
from  them  that  punishment  which  must  otherwise  in- 
fallibly overtake  them.  As  he  had  now  learned  from  the 
count  that  the  principal  source  of  the  existing  errors  in 
the  faith  was  in  the  moral  depravity  of  the  clergy,  the 
bad  instruction  and  the  neglected  education  of  the  younf, 
he  hereby  empowered  the  regent  to  appoint  a  special 
commission  of  three  bishops,  and  a  convenient  number 
of  learned  theologians,  Avhose  business  it  should  be  to 
consult  about  the  necessary  reforms,  in  order  that  the 
people  might  no  longer  be  led  astray  through  scandal, 
nor  plunge  into  error  through  ignorance.  As,  moreover, 
he  had  been  informed  that  the  public  executions  of  the 
heretics  did  but  afford  them  an  opportunity  of  boastfully 
displaying  a  foolhardy  courage,  and  of  deluding  the 
common  herd  by  an  affectation  of  the  glory  of  martyrdom, 
the  commission  was  to  devise  means  for  putting  in  foi'ce 
the  final  sentence  of  the  Inquisition  with  greater  privacy, 
and  thereby  depriving  condemned  heretics  of  the  honor 
of  their  obduracy."  In  order,  however,  to  provide 
against  the  commission  going  beyond  its  prescribed  limits 
Philip  expressly  required  that  the  Bishop  of  Ypres,  a  man 
whom  he  could  rely  on  as  a  determined  zealot  for  the 
Romish  faith,  should  be  one  of  the  body.  Their  delibera- 
ations  were  to  be  conducted,  if  possible,  in  seci-ecy,  while 
the  object  publicly  assigned  to  them  should  be  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Tridentine  decrees.  For  this  his  motive 
seems  to  have  been  twofold ;  on  the  one  hand,  not  to 
alarm  the  court  of  Rome  by  the  assembling  of  a  private 
council ;  nor,  on  the  other,  to  afford  any  encouragement 
to  the  spirit  of  rebellion  in  the  provinces.  At  its  sessions 
the  duchess  was  to  preside,  assisted  by  some  of  the  more 
loyally  disposed  of  her  counsellors,  and  regularly  transmit 
to  Philip  a  wi'itten  account  of  its  transactions.  To  meet 
her  most  pressing  wants  he  sent  her  a  small  supply  in 
money.  He  also  gave  her  hopes  of  a  visit  from  himself ; 
first,  however,  it  was  necessary  that  the  war  with  the  Turks, 
who  were  then  expected  in  hostile  force  before  Malta, 
should  be  terminated.  As  to  the  proposed  augmentation  of 
the  council  of  state,  and  its  union  with  the  privy  council 


132        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

nncl  chamber  of  finance,  it  was  passed  over  in  perfect 
silence.  The  Duke  of  Arschot,  however,  who  is  ph-eady 
known  to  us  as  a  zealous  royalist,  obtained  a  voice  and 
seat  in  the  latter.  Viglius,  indeed,  was  alloAved  to  retire 
from  the  presidency  of  the  privy  council,  but  he  was 
oblig;ed,  nevertheless,  to  continue  to  discharge  its  duties 
for  four  more  years, because  his  successor,  CarlTyssenaque, 
of  the  council  for  Netherlandish  affairs  in  Madrid,  could 
not  sooner  be  spared. 

SEVEBER   RELIGIOUS   EDICTS UNIVERSAL   OPPOSITION   OF 

THE    NATION. 

Scarcely  was  Egmont  returned   when  severer    edicts 
against  heretics,  which,   as  it  were,   pursued  him  from 
Spain,    contradicted    the   joyful   tidings   which   he   had 
brought   of  a  happy  change   in   the   sentiments  of   the 
monarch.      They   were   at   the  same   time   accompanied 
with  a  transcript  of  the  decrees  of  Trent,  as  they  were 
acknowledged  in  Spain,  and  were  now  to  be  proclaimed 
in  the  Netherlands  also ;  with  it  came  likewise  the  death 
warrants  of  some  Anabaptists  and  other  kinds  of  heretics. 
"  The  count  has  been  beguiled,"  William  the  Silent  was 
now   heard    to  say,  "  and  deluded  by   Spanish  cunning. 
Self-love  and  vanity  have  blinded  his  penetration;  for  his 
own  advantage  he  has  forgotten  the    general  welfare," 
The  treachery  of  the  Spanish  ministry  was  now  exposed, 
and  this  dishonest  proceeding  roused  the  indignation  of 
the  noblest  in  the  land.     But  no  one  felt  it  more  acutely 
than  Count  Egmont,  who  now  perceived  himself  to  have 
been  tlie  tool  of  Spanish  duplicity,  and  to  have  become 
unwittingly  the  betrayer  of  his  own  country.     "  These 
specious  favors  then,"  he  exclaimed,  loudly  and  bitterly, 
"  were  nothing  but  an  artifice  to  expose  me  to  the  ridicule 
of  my  fellow-citizens,  and  to  destroy  my  good  name.     If 
this  is  the  fashion  after  which  the  king  purposes  to  keep 
the  promises  which  he  made  to  me  in  Spain,  let  who  will 
take  Flanders ;  for  my  part,  I  will  prove  by  my  retire- 
ment from  public  business  that  I  have  no  share  in  this 
breach  of  faith."     In  fact,  the  Spanish  ministry  could  not 
have  adopted  a  surer  method  of  breaking  the  credit  of  so 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLANDS. 


133 


important  a  man  than  by  exhibiting  him  to  his  fellow- 
citizens,  who  adored  him,  as  one  whom  they  had  succeeded 
in  deludincf. 

Meanwlule  the  commission  had  been  appomted,  and  liad 
unanimously  come  to  the  following  decision  :  "  Whether 
for  the  moral  reformation  of  the  clergy,  or  for  the  relig- 
ious instruction  of  the  people,  or  for  the  education  of  youth, 
such  abundant  provision  had  already  been  made  in  the 
decrees  of  Trent  that  nothing  now  was  requisite  but  to 
put  these  decrees  in  force  as  speedily  as  possible.     The 
imperial  edicts  against  the  heretics  already  ought  on  no 
account  to  be  recalled  or  modified  ;  the  courts  of  justice, 
however,  might   be   secretly  instructed    to    punish   with 
death  none  but  obstinate  heretics  or  preachers,  to  make  a 
difference  between  the  different  sects,  and  to  show  con- 
sideration to  the  age,  rank,   sex,   or   disposition  of  the 
accused.     If  it  were  really  the  case  that  public  executions 
did  but  inflame  fanaticism,  then,  perhaps,  the  unheroic, 
less  observed,  but  still  equally  severe  punishment  of  the 
galleys,  would  be   well-adapted  to  bring   down  all  high 
notions  of  martyrdom.     As  to  the   delinquencies  which 
might   have   arisen   out   of    mere    levity,   curiosity,  and 
thoughtlessness  it  would  perhaps  be  sufficient  to  punish 
theni^  by  fines,  exile,  or  even  corporal  chastisement." 

During  these  deliberations,  which,  moreover,  it  was  re- 
quisite to  submit  to  the  king  at  Madrid,  and  to  wait  for  the 
notification  of  his  apjiroval  of  them,  the  time  passed  away 
unprofitably,  the  pi-oceedings  against  the  sectaries  being 
either  suspended,  or  at  le'ast  conducted  very  supinely. 
Since  the  recall  of  Granvella  the  disunion  which  prevailed 
in  the  higher  coimcils,  and  from  thence  had  extended  to 
the  provincial  courts  of  justice,  combined  with  the  mild 
feelings  generally  of  the  nobles  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
had  raised  the  courage  of  the  sects,  and  allowed  free 
scope  to  the  proselytizing  mania  of  their  apostles.  The 
inquisitors,  too,  had  fallen  into  contem])t  in  consequence 
of  the  secular  arm  withdrawing  its  support,  and  in  many 
places  even  openly  taking  their  victims  under  its  protec- 
tion. The  Roman  Catholic  part  of  the  nation  had  formed 
great  expectations  from  the  decrees  of  the  synod  of 
Trent,  as  well  as  from  Egmont's  embassy  to  Spain  ;  but 


134        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

in  the  latter  case  their  hopes  had  scarcely  been  justified 
by  the  Joyous  tidings  which  the  count  had  brought  back, 
and,  in  the  integrity  of  his  heart,  left  nothing  undone  to 
make  known  as  widely  as  possible.  The  more  disused 
the  nation  had  become  to  severity  in  matters  pertaining 
to  relio-ion  the  more  acutely  was  it  likely  to  feel  the 
sudden  adoption  of  even  still  more  rigorous  measures. 
In  this  position  of  affairs  the  royal  rescript  arrived  from 
Spain  in  answer  to  the  proposition  of  the  bishops  and  the 
last  despatches  of  the  regent.  "  Whatever  interpretation 
(such  was  its  tenor)  Count  Egmont  may  have  given  to 
the  king's  verbal  communications,  it  had  never  in  the 
remotest  manner  entered  his  mind  to  think  of  altering  in 
the  slightest  degree  the  penal  statutes  which  the  Emperor, 
his  father,  had  iive-and-thirty  years  ago  published  in  the 
provinces.  These  edicts  he  therefore  commanded  should 
henceforth  be  carried  rigidly  into  effect,  the  Inquisition 
should  receive  the  most  active  support  from  the  secular 
arm,  and  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Trent  be  irrevoca^ 
bly  and  unconditionally  acknowledged  in  all  the  provinces 
of  his  Netlierlands.  He  acquiesced  fully  in  the  opinion 
of  the  bishops  and  canonists  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  the 
Tridentine  decrees  as  guides  in  all  points  of  reformation 
of  the  clergy  or  instruction  of  the  people ;  but  he  could 
not  concur  with  them  as  to  the  mitigation  of  punishment 
which  they  proposed  in  Consideration  either  of  the  age, 
sex,  or  character  of  individuals,  since  he  was  of  opinion 
that  his  edicts  wefe  in  no  degree  wantinsf  in  moderation. 
To  nothing  but  want  of  zeal  and  disloyalty  on  the  part  of 
judges  could  he  ascribe  the  progress  which  heresy  had 
already  made  in  the  country.  In  future,  therefore,  who- 
ever among  them  should  be  thus  wanting  in  zeal  must  be 
removed  from  his  office  and  make  room  for  a  more  honest 
judge.  The  Inquisition  ought  to  pursue  its  appointed 
path  firmly,  fearlessly,  and  dispassionately,  without  regard 
to  or  consideration  of  human  feelings,  and  was  to  look 
neither  before  nor  behind.  He  would  always  be  ready 
to  approve  of  all  its  measures  however  extreme  if  it  only 
avoided  public  scandal." 

Tliis  letter  of  the  king,  to  which  the  Orange  party  have 
ascribed  all  the  subsequent  troubles  of  the  Netherlands, 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDSi        135 

caused  the  most  violent  excitement  amongst  the  state 
counsellors,  and  the  expressions  which  in  society  they 
either  accidentally  or  intentionally  let  fall  from  them  with 
regard  to  it  spread  terror  and  alarm  amongst  the  ])eople. 
The  dread  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  returned  with  new 
force,  and  with  it  came  fresh  apprehensions  of  the  sub- 
version of  their  liberties.  Already  the  people  fancied 
they  could  hear  prisons  building,  chains  and  fetters 
forging,  and  see  piles  of  fagots  cotlecting.  Society,  was 
Occupied  with  this  one  theme  of  conversation,-  and  fear 
kept  no  longer  within  bounds.  Placards  were  affixed  to 
houses  of  the  nobles  in  which  they  were  called  upon,  aS 
formerly  Rome  called  on  her  Brutus,  to  come  forward 
and  save  expiring  freedom.  Biting  pasquinades  were 
published  against  "the  new  bishops  —  tormentors  as  they 
Were  called ;  the  clergy  were  ridiculed  in  comedies,  and 
abuse  spared  the  throne  as  little  as  the  Romish  see. 

Terrified  by  the  rumors  which  were  afloat,  the  regent- 
called  together  all  the  counsellors  of  state  to  consult  thep 
on  the  course  she  ought  to  adopt  in  this  perilous  crisis. 
Opinion  varied  and  disputes  were  violent.  Undecided 
between  fear  and  duty  they  hesitated  to  come  to  a  con^ 
elusion,  until  at  last  the  aged  senator,  VigliuS,  rose  and 
surprised  the  whole  assembly  by  his  opinion.  "  It  would," 
he  said,  "  be  the  height  of  folly  in  us  to  think  of  promul- 
gating the  royal  edict  at  the  present  moment ;  the  king 
must  be  informed  of  the  reception  which,  in  all  proba- 
bility, it  will  now  meet.  In  the  meantime  the  inquisitors 
must  be  enjoined  to  use  their  power  with  moderation, 
and  to  abstain  from  severity."  But  if  these  words  of  the 
aged  president  surprised  the  whole  assembly,  still  greater" 
Avas  the  astonishment  when  the  Prince  of  Orange  stood  up 
and  opposed  his  advice.  "  The  royal  will,"  he  said,  "  is 
too  clearly  and  too  precisely  stated;  it  is  the  result  of 
too  long  and  too  mature  deliberation  for  us  to  venture  to 
delay  its  execution  without  bringing  on  ourselves  the 
reproach  of  the  most  culpable  obstinacy."  "  That  I  take 
on  myself,"  interrupted  Viglius ;  "  I  oppose  myself  to  his 
displeasure.  If  by  this  delay  we  purchase  for  him  the 
peace  of  the  ISTetherlantls  our  opposition  will  eventually 
secure  for  us  the  lasting  gratitude  of  the  king."     The 


13 G  KEVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

regent  already  began  to  incline  to  tlie  advice  of  Viglius, 
when  the  prince  vehemently  interposing,  "  What,"  he 
demanded,  "what  have  the  many  representations  which 
we  have  already  made  effected  ?  of  what  avail  was  the 
embassy  we  so  lately  despatched  ?  Nothing  !  And  what 
then  do  we  wait  for  more  ?  Shall  we,  his  state  counsel- 
lors, bring  upon  ourselves  the  whole  weight  of  his  dis- 
pleasure by  determining,  at  our  own  peril,  to  render  him 
a  service  for  which  he  will  never  thank  us?"  Undecided 
and  uncertain  the  whole  assembly  remained  silent;  but 
no  one  had  courage  enough  to  assent  to  or  reply  to  him. 
But  the  prince  had  appealed  to  the  fears  of  the  regent, 
and  these  left  her  no  choice.  The  consequences  of  her 
unfortunate  obedience  to  the  king's  command  will  soon 
appear.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  by  a  wise  disobedience 
she  had  avoided  these  fatal  consequences,  is  it  clear  that 
the  result  would  not  have  been  the  same  ?  However  she 
had  adopted  the  most  fatal  of  the  two  counsels :  happen 
what  would  the  royal  ordinance  was  to  be  promulgated. 
This  time,  therefore,  faction  prevailed,  and  the  advice  of 
the  only  true  friend  of  the  government,  who,  to  serve  his 
monarch,  was  ready  to  incur  his  displeasure,  was  disre- 
garded. With  this  session  terminated  the  peace  of  the 
regent:  from  this  day  the  Netherlands  dated  all  the 
trouble  which  uninterruptedly  visited  their  country.  As 
the  counsellors  separated  the  Prince  of  Orange  said  to 
one  who  stood  nearest  to  him,  "  Now  will  soon  be  acted 
a  great  tragedy."  * 

*  The  conduct  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  this  meeting  of  the  council  has 
been  appealed  to  by  historians  of  the  Spanish  party  as  a  proof  of  his  dis- 
honesty, and  they  have  availed  themselves  over  and  over  again  to  blacken 
his  character.  "  He,"  say  they,  "  who  had,  invariably  up  to  this  period,  both 
by  word  and  deed,  opposed  the  measures  of  the  court  so  long  as  he  had  any 
ground  to  fear  that  the  king's  measures  could  be  successfully  carried  out, 
supported  them  now  for  the  first  time  when  he  was  convinced  that  a  scrupu- 
lous obedience  to  the  royal  orders  would  inevitably  prejudice  him.  In  order 
to  convince  the  king  of  his  folly  in  disregarding  his  warnings  ;  in  order  to  be 
able  to  boast,  '  this  I  foresaw,'  and  '  I  foretold  that,'  he  was  willing  to  ri«k 
the  welfare  of  his  nation,  for  which  alone  he  had  hitherto  professed  to 
struggle.  The  whole  tenor  of  his  previous  conduct  proved  that  he  held  the 
enforcement  of  the  edicts  to  be  an  evil ;  nevertheless,  he  at  once  becomes 
false  to  his  own  convictions  and  follows  an  opposite  course  ;  although,  so  far 
as  the  nation  was  concerned,  the  same  groiinds  existed  as  had  dictated  his 
former  measures  ;  and  he  chnnfred  his  conduct  simply  that  the  result  might 
be  liitferent  to  the  king."  "  It  is  clear,  therefore,"  continue  his  adversaries, 
"  tliat  tlie  welfare  of  the  nation  had  less  weight  with  him  than  his  animosity 
to  his  sovereign.    In  order  to  gratiiy  his  hatred  to  the  latter  he  does  not 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        137 

An  edict,  therefore,  was  issued  to  all  the  governors  of 
provinces,  commanding  them  rigorously  to  enforce  the 
mandates  of  the  Emperor  against  heretics,  as  well  as  those 
which  had  been  passed  under  the  present  government, 
the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Trent,  and  those  of  the 
episcopal  commission,  which  had  lately  sat  to  give  all 
the  aid  of  the  civil  force  to  the  Inquisition,  and  also  to 
enjoin  a  similar  line  of  conduct  on  the  officers  of  gov^- 
ernment  under  them.  More  effectually  to  secure  their 
object,  every  governor  was  to  select  from  his  own  council 
an  efficient  officer  who  should  frequently  make  the  circuit 
of  the  province  and  institute  strict  inquiries  into  the 
obedience  shown  by  the  inferior  officers  to  these  com- 
mands, and  then  transmit  quarterly  to  the  capital  an 
exact  report  of  their  visitation.  A  copy  of  the  Tridentine 
decrees,  according  to  the  Spanish  original,  was  also  sent 
to  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  with  an  intimation  that 
in  case  of  their  needinij  the  assistance  of  the  secular 
power,  the  governors  of  their  diocese,  with  their  troops, 
were  placed  at  their  disposal.  Against  these  decrees  no 
privilege  was  to  avail;  however,  the  king  willed  and 
commanded  that  the  particular  territorial  rights  of  the 
provinces  and  towns  should  in  no  case  be  infringed. 

These  commands,  which  were  publicly  read  in  every 
town  by  a  herald,  produced  an  effect  on  the  people 
which  in  the  fullest  manner  verified  the  fears  of  the 
President  Viglius  and  the  hopes  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

hesitate  to  sacrifice  the  former."  But  is  it  then  true  that  by  calling  for  the 
prointilgation  of  these  edicts  he  sacrificed  the  nation  ?  or,"  to  speak  more 
correctly,  did  he  carry  the  edicts  into  effect  bv  insisting  on  their  promulga- 
tion? Can  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  be  showi  with  far  more  probability  that 
this  was  reaUy  the  only  way  elfectuallv  to  frustrate  thein?  The  nation  was 
in  a  ferment,  and  the  indignant  people  would  (there  was  reason  to  expect, 
and  as  Viglius  himself  seems  to  have  apprehended)  show  so  decided  a  spirit 
of  opposition  as  must  compel  the  king  to  yield.  "  Now."  says  Orange,  "  my 
country  feels  all  the  imoulse  necessary  for  it  to  contend  successfully  with 
tyranny  !  If  1  neglect  the  present  moment  the  tyrant  will,  by  secret  nego- 
tiation and  intrigue,  find  means  to  obtain  bv  stealth  what  bv  open  force  he 
could  not.  The  same  object  will  be  stea<lily  pursued,  only  with  greater 
caution  and  forbearance  ;  but  extremity  alone  can  combine  the  people  to 
unity  of  purpose,  and  move  them  to  bold  measures."  It  is  clear,  therefore, 
that  with  regard  to  the  king  the  prince  did  but  change  his  language  only  ; 
but  that  as  far  as  the  people  was  concerned  his  conduct  was  perfectly  con- 
sistent. And  what  duties  did  he  owe  the  king  apart  from  those  he  owed  the 
republic  ?  Was  he  to  oppose  an  arbitary  act  in  the  very  moment  when  it  was 
about  to  entail  a  inst  retribution  on  its  author?  Would  he  have  done  his 
duty  to  his  country  if  he  had  deterred  its  oppressor  from  a  precipitate  step 
which  alone  could  save  it  from  its  otherwise  unavoidable  misery  ? 


138        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS . 

Nearly  all  the  governors  of  provinces  refused  compliance 
with  them,  and  threatened  to  throw  up  their  appoint- 
ments if  the  attempt  should  be  made  to  compel  their 
obedience.  "  Tlie  ordinance,"  tliey  wrote  back,  "  was 
based  on  a  statement  of  the  numbers  of  the  sectaries, 
Avhich  was  altogether  false  *  Justice  was  appalled  at  the 
prodigious  crowd  of  victims  which  daily  accumulated 
under  its  hands ;  to  destroy  by  the  flames  fifty  thousand 
or  sixty  thousand  persons  from  their  districts  was  no 
commission  for  them."  The  inferior  clergy  too,  in  par- 
ticular, were  loud  in  their  outcries  against  the  decrees  of 
Trent,  which  cruelly  assailed  their  ignorance  and  corrup- 
tion, and  which  moreover  threatened  them  with  a  re- 
form they  so  much  detested.  Sacrificing,  therefore,  the 
highest  interests  of  their  church  to  their  own  private 
advantage,  they  bitterly  reviled  the  decrees  and  the 
whole  council,  and  witli  liberal  hand  scattered  the  seeds 
of  revolt  in  the  minds  of  the  people.  The  same  outcry 
was  now  revived  which  the  monks  had  formerly  raised 
against  the  new  bishops.  The  Archbishop  of  Cambray 
succeeded  at  last,  but  not  without  great  opposition,  in 
causing  the  decrees  to  be  proclaimed.  It  cost  more  labor 
to  effect  this  in  Malines  and  Utrect,  where  the  arch- 
bishops were  at  strife  with  their  clergy,  who,  as  they 
were  accused,  preferred  to  involve  the  Avhole  church  in 
ruin  rather  than  submit  to  a  reformation  of  morals. 

Of  all  the  provinces  Brabant  raised  its  voice  the  loud- 
est. The  states  of  tliis  province  appealed  to  their  great 
privilege,  which  protected  their  members  from  being 
brought  before  a  foreign  court  of  justice.  They  spoke 
loudly  of  the  oath  by  which  the  king  had  bound  himself 
to  observe  all  their  statutes,  and  of  the  conditions  under 
which  they  alone  had  sworn  allegiance  to  him.  Louvain, 
Antwerp,    Brussels,    and   Herzogenbusch   solemnly   pro- 

*  The  immTipr  of  the  heretics  was  very  unequally  computed  by  the  two 
parties,  according  as  the  interests  and  passions  of  either  made  its  increase  or 
diminution  desirable,  and  the  same  party  often  contradicted  itself  when  its 
interest  changed.  If  the  question  related  to  new  measures  of  oppression,  to 
the  introduction  of  the  inquisitional  tribunals,  etc.,  the  numbers  of  the 
Protestants  were  countless  and  interminable.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
question  was  of  lenity  towards  them,  of  ordinances  to  their  advantage,  they 
were  no«- reduced  to  such  an  insignificant  number  that  it  would  not  repay 
the  trouble  of  making  an  innovation  for  this  small  body  of  ill-minded 
people. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       139 

tested  against  the  decrees,  and  transmitted  their  protests 
in  distinct  memorials  to  the  regent.  The  latter,  always 
hesitating  and  wavering,  too  timid  to  obey  the  king,  and 
far  more  afraid  to  disobey  him,  again  summoned  her 
council,  again  listened  to  the  arguments  for  and  against 
the  question,  and  at  last  again  gave  her  assent  to  the 
opinion  which  of  all  others  was  the  most  perilous  for  her 
to  adopt.  A  new  reference  to  the  king  in  Spain  was  pro- 
posed ;  the  next  moment  it  was  asserted  that  so  urgen  a 
crisis  did  not  admit  of  so  dilatory  a  remedy;  it  A\as 
necessary  for  the  regent  to  act  on  her  own  responsibility, 
and  either  defy  the  threatening  aspect  of  despair,  or  to 
yield  to  it  by  modifying  or  retracting  the  royal  ordi- 
nance. She  finally  ciiused  the  annals  of  Brabant  to  be 
examined  in  order  to  discover  if  possible  a  precedent  for 
the  present  case  in  the  instructions  of  the  first  inquisitor 
whom  Charles  V.  had  appointed  to  the  province.  These 
instructions  indeed  did  not  exactly  correspond  with  those 
now  given ;  but  had  not  the  king  declared  that  he  intro- 
duced no  innovation?  This  was  precedent  enough,  and 
it  was  declared  that  the  new  edicts  must  also  be  inter- 
preted in  accordance  with  the  old  and  existing  statutes 
of  the  province.  This  explanation  gave  indeed  no  satis- 
faction to  the  states  of  Brabant,  who  had  loudlj'^  demanded 
the  entire  abolition  of  the  inquisition,  but  it  w^as  an 
encouragement  to  the  other  provinces  to  make  similar 
protests  and  an  equally  bold  opposition.  Without  giving 
the  duchess  time  to  decide  upon  their  remonstrances  they, 
on  their  own  authority,  ceased  to  obey  the  inquisition, 
and  withdrew  their  aid  from  it.  The  inquisitors,  who  had 
so  recently  been  expressly  urged  to  a  more  rigid  execu- 
tion of  their  duties  now  saw  themselves  suddenly  deserted 
by  the  secular  arm,  and  robbed  of  all  authority,  while  in 
answer  to  their  application  for  assistance  the  court  could 
give  them  only  empty  promises.  Tlie  regent  by  thus 
endeavoring  to  satisfy  all  parties  had  displeased  all. 

During  these  negotiations  between  the  court,  the  coun- 
cils, and  the  states  a  universal  spirit  of  revolt  pervaded 
the  whole  nation.  Men  began  to  investigate  the  rights 
of  the  subject,  and  to  scrutinize  the  prerogative  of  kings. 
"  The   Netherlanders  were   not  so  stupid,"  many  were 


140  EEVOLT   OF   TIIE   NETHERLANDS. 

heard  to  say  with  very  little  attempt  at  secrecy,  "  as  not 
to  know  right  well  what  was  due  from  the  subject  to  the 
sovereign,  and  from  the  king  to  the  subject ;  and  that 
perhaps  means  would  yet  be  found  to  repel  force  with 
force,  although  at  present  there  might  be  no  appearance 
of  it."  In  Antwerp  a  placard  was  set  up  in  several 
places  calling  upon  the  town  council  to  accuse  the  King 
of  Spain  before  the  supreme  court  at  Spires  of  having 
broken  his  oath  and  violated  the  liberties  of  the  country, 
for,  Brabant  being  a  portion  of  the  Burgundian  circle, 
was  included  in  the  religious  peace  of  Passau  and  Augs- 
burg. About  this  time  too  the  Calvhiists  published  their 
confession  of  faith,  and  in  a  preamble  addressed  to  the 
king,  declared  that  they,  although  a  hundred  thousand 
strong,  kept  themselves  nevertheless  quiet,  and  like  the 
rest  of  his  subjects,  contributed  to  all  the  taxes  of  the 
country;  from  which  it  was  evident,  they  added,  that  of 
themselves  they  entertained  no  ideas  of  insurrection. 
Bold  and  incendiary  writings  were  publicly  disseminated, 
which  depicted  the  Spanish  tyranny  in  the  most  odious 
colors,  and  reminded  the  nation  of  its  privileges,  and 
occasionally  also  of  its  powers.*  , 

The  warlike  preparations  of  Philip  against  the  Porte, 
as  well  as  those  which,  for  no  intelligible  reason,  Eric, 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  about  this  time  made  in  the  vicinity, 
contributed  to  strengthen  the  general  suspicion  that  the 
Inquisition  was  to  be  forcibly  imposed  on  the  Netherlands. 
Many  of  the  most  eminent  merchants  already  spoke  of 
quitting  their  houses  and  business  to  seek  in  some  other 
part  of  the  world  the  liberty  of  which  tliey  were  here 
deprived ;  others  looked  about  for  a  leader,  and  let  fall 
hints  of  forcible  resistance  and  of  foreign  aid. 

That  in  tliis  distressing  position  of  affairs  the  regent 
might  be  left  entirely  without  an  adviser  and  without 
support,  she  was  now  deserted  by  the  only  person  who 

*  The  regent  mentioned  to  the  king  a  numher  (three  thousand")  of  these 
writings.  Strada  117.  It  is  remarkable  how  important  a  part  printing,  and 
publicity  in  general,  played  in  the  rebellion  of  the  Netherlands.  Through 
tills  organ  one  restless  spirit  spoke  to  millions.  Besides  the  lampoons,  which 
for  the  most  part  were  composed  with  all  the  low  scurrility  and  brutality 
which  was  the  distinguishing  character  of  most  of  the  Protestant  polemical 
^n•itings  of  the  time,  works  were  occasionally  published  which  defended 
religious  liberty  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        141 

was  at  the  present  moment  indispensable  to  her,  and 
who  had  contributed  to  plunge  her  into  this  embarrass- 
ment. "  Without  kindling  a  civil  war,"  wrote  to  her 
William  of  Orange,  "it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  com- 
ply now  with  the  orders  of  the  knig.  If,  however,  obe- 
dience was  to  be  insisted  upon,  he  must  beg  that  his 
place  might  be  supplied  by  another  who  would  better 
answer  the  expectations  of  his  majesty,  and  have  more 
power  than  he  had  over  the  minds  of  the  nation.  The 
zeal  which  on  every  other -occasion  he  had  shown  in  the 
service  of  the  crown,  would,  he  hoped,  secure  his  pres- 
ent proceeding  from  misconstruction;  for,  as  the  case 
now  stood,  he  had  no  alternative  between  disobeying  the 
king  and  injuring  his  country  and  himself."  From  this 
time  forth  William  of  Orange  retired  from  the  council 
of  state  to  his  town  of  Breda,  where  in  observant  but 
scarcely  inactive  repose  he  watched  the  course  of  affairs. 
Count  Horn  followed  his  example.  Egmont,  ever  vacil- 
lating between  the  republic  and  the  throne,  ever  wearying 
himself  in  the  vain  attempt  to  unite  the  good  citizen  with 
the  obedient  subject  —  Egmont,  who  was  less  able  than 
the  rest  to  dispense  with  the  favor  of  tlie  monarch,  and 
to  whom,  therefore,  it  was  less  an  object  of  indifference, 
could  not  bring  himself  to  abandon  the  bright  prospects 
which  were  now  opening  for  him  at  the  court  of  the 
regent.  The  Prince  of  Orange  had,  by  his  superior 
intellect,  gained  an  influence  over  the  regent  which  great 
minds  cannot  fail  to  command  from  inferior  spirits.  His 
retirement  had  opened  a  void  in  her  confidence  which 
Count  Egmont  was  now  to  fill  by  virtue  of  that  sympathy 
which  so  naturally  subsists  between  timidity,  weakness, 
and  good-nature.  As  she  was  as  much  afraid  of  exasper- 
ating the  people  by  an  exclusive  confidence  in  the  ad- 
herents to  the  crown,  as  she  was  fearful  of  displeasing  the 
king  by  too  close  an  understanding  with  the  declared 
leaders  of  the  faction,  a  better  object  for  her  confidence 
could  now  hardly  be  presented  than  this  very  Count  Eg- 
mont, of  whom  "it  could  not  be  said  that  he  belonged  to 
either  of  the  two  conflicting  parties. 


142  EEVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 

BOOK    III. 

CONSPIRACY   OF   THE   NOBLES. 

1565.  Up  to  this  point  the  general  peace  had  it  appears 
been  the  sincere  wish  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Horn,  and  their  friends.  They  had  pursued 
the  true  interests  of  their  sovereign  as  much  as  the  general 
weal;  at  least  their  exertions  and  their  actions  had  been 
as  little  at  variance  with  the  former  as  with  the  latter. 
Nothing  had  as  yet  occurred  to  make  their  motives  sus- 
pected, or  to  manifest  in  them  a  rebellious  spirit.  What 
they  had  done  they  had  done  in  discharge  of  their  bounden 
duty  as  members  of  a  free  state,  as  the  representatives  of 
the  nation,  as  advisers  of  the  king,  as  men  of  integrity 
and  honor.  The  only  weapons  they  had  used  to  oppose 
the  encroachments  of  the  court  had  been  remonstrances, 
modest  complaints,  2:)etitions.  They  had  never  allowed 
themselves  to  be  so  far  carried  away  by  a  just  zeal  for 
their  good  cause  as  to  transgress  the  limits  of  prudence 
and  moderation  which  on  many  occasions  are  so  easily 
overstepped  by  party  spirit.  But  all  the  nobles  of  the 
republic  did  not  now  listen  to  the  voice  of  that  prudence ; 
all  did  not  abide  within  the  bounds  of  moderation. 

While  in  the  council  of  state  the  great  question  was 
discussed  whether  the  nation  was  to  be  miserable  or  not, 
while  its  sworn  deputies  summoned  to  their  assistance  all 
the  arguments  of  reason  and  of  equity,  and  while  the 
middle^^classes  and  the  people  contented  themselves  with 
empty  complaints,  menaces,  and  curses,  that  part  of  the 
nation  which  of  all  seemed  least  called  upon,  and  on  whose 
support  least  reliance  had  been  placed,  began  to  take 
more  active  measures.  We  have  already  described  a 
class  of  the  nobility  whose  services  and  wants  Philip  at 
his  accession  had  not  considered  it  necessary  to  remember. 
Of  these  1)y  far  the  greater  number  had  asked  for  pro- 
motion from  a  much  more  urgent  reason  than  a  love  of 
the  mere  honor.  Many  of  them  were  deeply  sunk  in  debt, 
from  which  by  their  own  resources  they  could  not  hope 
to  emancii)ate   themselves.      When    then,   in    filling   up 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        143 

appointments,  Philip  passed  them  over  he  wounded  thera 
in  a  point  far  more  sensitive  than  their  pride.  In  these 
suitors  he  had  by  his  neglect  raised  up  so  many  idle  spies 
and  merciless  judges  of  his  actions,  so  many  collectors 
and  propagators  of  malicious  rumor.  As  their  pride  did 
not  quit  them  with  their  prosperity,  so  now,  driven  by 
necessity,  they  trafficked  with  the  sole  capital  which  they 
could  not  alienate  —  their  nobility  and  the  political 
influence  of  their  names ;  and  brought  into  circulation  a 
coin  which  only  in  such  a  period  could  have  found  cur- 
rency —  their  protection.  With  a  self-pride  to  which  they 
gave  the  more  scope  as  it  was  all  they  could  now  call 
their  own,  they  looked  upon  themselves  as  a  strong  inter- 
mediate power  between  the  sovereign  and  the  citizen,  and 
believed  themselves  called  upon  to  hasten  to  the  rescue 
of  the  oppressed  state,  which  looked  imploringly  to  them 
for  succor.  This  idea  was  ludicrous  only  so  far  as  their 
self-conceit  was  concerned  in  it ;  the  advantages  which 
they  contrived  to  draw  from  it  were  substantial  enough. 
The  Protestant  merchants,  who  held  in  their  hands  the 
chief  part  of  the  wealth  of  the  Netherlands,  and  who 
believed  they  could  not  at  any  price  purchase  too  dearly 
the  undisturbed  exercise  of  their  religion,  did  not  fail  to 
make  use  of  this  class  of  people  who  stood  idle  in  the 
market  and  ready  to  be  hired.  These  very  men  whom 
at  any  other  time  the  merchants,  in  the  pride  of  riches, 
would  most  probably  have  looked  down  upon,  now 
appeared  likely  to  do  them  good  service  through  their 
numbers,  their  courage,  their  credit  with  the  populace, 
their  enmity  to  the  government,  nay,  through  their  beg- 
garly pride  itself  and  their  despair.  On  these  grounds 
they  zealously  endeavored  to  form  a  close  union  with 
them,  and  diligently  fostered  the  disposition  for  rebellion, 
while  they  also  used  every  means  to  keep  alive  their  high 
opinions  of  themselves,  and,  what  was  most  impoi-tant, 
lured  their  poverty  by  well-applied  pecuniary  assistance 
and  glittering  promises.  Few  of  them  were  so  utterly 
insignificant  as  not  to  possess  some  influence,  if  not  per- 
sonally, yet  at  least  by  their  relationship  with  higher  and 
more  powerful  nobles ;  and  if  united  they  would  be  able 
to  raise  a  formidable  voice  against  the  crown.     Many  of 


144       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

them  had  either  already  joined  the  new  sect  or  were 
secretly  inclined  to  it ;  and  even  those  who  were  zealous 
Roman  Catholics  had  political  or  private  grounds  enough 
to  set  them  against  the  decrees  of  Trent  and  the  Inquisi- 
tion. All,  in  fine,  felt  the  call  of  vanity  sufficiently 
powerful  not  to  allow  the  only  moment  to  escape  them 
in  which  they  might  possibly  make  some  figure  in  the 
republic. 

But  much  as  might  be  expected  from  the  co-operation 
of  these  men  in  a  body  it  would  have  been  futile  and 
ridiculous  to  build  any  hopes  on  any  one  of  them  singly ; 
and  the  great  difficulty  Avas  to  effect  a  union  among  them. 
Even  to  bring  them  together  some  unusual  occurrence 
was  necessary,  and  fortunately  such  an  incident  presented 
itself.  The  nuptials  of  Baron  Montigny,  one  of  the 
Belgian  nobles,  as  also  those  of  the  Prince  Alexander 
of  Parma,  which  took  place  about  this  time  in  Brussels, 
assembled  in  that  town  a  great  number  of  the  Belgian 
nobles.  On  this  occasion  relations  met  relations;  new 
friendships  were  formed  and  old  renewed ;  and  while 
the  distress  of  the  country  was  the  topic  of  conversation 
wine  and  mirth  unlocked  lips  and  hearts,  hints  were 
dropped  of  union  among  themselves,  and  of  an  alliance 
with  foreign  powers.  These  accidental  meetings  soon 
led  to  concealed  ones,  and  public  discussions  gave  rise  to 
secret  consultations.  Two  German  barons,  moreover,  a 
Count  of  HoUe  and  a  Count  of  Schwarzenberg,  who  at 
this  time  were  on  a  visit  to  the  Netherlands,  omitted 
nothing  to  awaken  expectations  of  assistance  from  their 
neighbors.  Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  too,  had  also  a  short 
tinie  before  visited  several  German  courts  to  ascertain 
their  sentiments.*  It  has  even  been  asserted  that  secret 
emissaries  of  the  Admiral  Coligny  were  seen  at  this 
time  in  Brabant,  but  this,  however,  may  be  reasonably 
doubted. 

If  ever  a  political  crisis  was  favorable  to  an  attempt  at 
revolution  it  was  the  present.     A  woman  at  the  helm  of 

»  It  was  not  without  cause  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  suddenly  disappeared 
from  Brussels  in  order  to  be  present  at  the  election  of  a  king  of  Rome  in 
Franlcfort.  An  assembly  of  so  many  German  princes  must  have  greatly 
favored  a  negotiation. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        145 

government ;  the  governors  of  provinces  disaffected  them- 
selves and  disposed  to  wink  at  insubordination  in  others  ; 
most  of  the  state  counsellors  quite  inefficient ;  no  army 
to  fall  back  upon ;  the  few  trooj^s  there  were  long  since 
discontented  on  account  of  the  outstanding  arrears  of  pay, 
and  already  too  often  deceived  by  false  promises  to  be 
enticed  by  new;  commanded,  moreover,  by  officers  who 
despised  the  Inquisition  from  their  hearts,  and  would 
have  blushed  to  di-aw  a  sword  in  its  behalf;  and,  lastly, 
no  money  in  the  treasury  to  enlist  new  troops  or  to  hire 
foreigners.  The  court  at  Brussels,  as  well  as  the  three 
councils,  not  only  divided  by  internal  dissensions,  but  in 
the  highest  degree  venal  and  corrupt ;  the  regent  without 
full  powers  to  act  on  the  spot,  and  the  king  at  a  distance  ; 
his  adherents  in  the  provinces  few,  xmcertain,  and  dis- 
pirited ;  the  faction  numerous  and  powerful ;  two-thirds 
of  the  people  irritated  against  popery  and  desirous  of  a 
change  —  such  was  the  unfortunate  weakness  of  the 
government,  and  the  more  unfortunate  still  that  this 
weakness  was  so  well  known  to  its  enemies ! 

In  order  to  unite  so  many  minds  in  the  prosecution  of 
a  common  object  a  leader  was  still  wanting,  and  a  few 
influential  names  to  give  political  weight  to  their  enter- 
prise. The  two  were  supplied  by  Count  Louis  of  Nassau 
and  Henry  Count  Brederode,  both  members  of  the  most 
illustrious  houses  of  the  Belgian  nobility,  who  voluntarily 
placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  undertaking.  Louis 
of  Nassau,  brother  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  united  many 
splendid  qualities  which  made  him  worthy  of  appearing 
on  so  noble  and  important  a  stage.  In  Geneva,  where 
he  studied,  he  had  imbibed  at  once  a  hatred  to  the  hier- 
archy and  a  love  to  the  new  religion,  and  on  his  return  to 
his  native  country  had  not  failed  to  enlist  proselytes  to 
his  opinions.  The  republican  bias  which  his  mind  had 
received  in  that  school  kindled  in  him  a  bitter  hatred  of 
the  Spanish  name,  which  animated  his  whole  conduct 
and  only  left  him  with  his  latest  breath.  Popery  and 
Spanish  rule  were  in  his  mind  identical  —  as  indeed  they 
were  in  reality  —  and  the  abhorrence  which  he  entertained 
for  the  one  helped  to  strengthen  his  dislike  for  the  other. 
Closely  as  the  brothers  agreed  in  their  inclinations  and 


146       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

aversions  the  ways  by  which  each  sought  to  gratify  them 
were  widely  dissimihir.  Youth  and  an  ardent  tempera- 
ment did  not  allow  the  younger  brother  to  follow  the 
tortuous  course  through  which  the  elder  wound  liimself 
to  his  object.  A  cold,  calm  circumspection  carried  the 
latter  slowly  but  surely  to  his  aim,  and  with  a  pliable 
subtilty  he  made  all  things  subserve  his  purpose ;  with  a 
foolhardy  impetuosity  which  overthrew  all  obstacles,  the 
other  at  times  compelled  success,  but  oftener  accelerated 
disaster.  For  this  reason  William  was  a  general  and 
Louis  never  more  than  an  adventurer ;  a  sure  and  power- 
ful arm  if  only  it  were  directed  by  a  wise  head.  Louis' 
pledge  once  given  was  good  forever;  his  alliances  sur- 
vived every  vicissitude,  for  they  were  mostly  formed  in 
the  pressing  moment  of  necessity,  and  misfortune  binds 
more  firmly  than  thoughtless  joy.  He  loved  his  brother 
as  dearly  as  he  did  his  cause,  and  for  the  latter  he  died. 

Henry  of  Brederode,  Bai'on  of  Viane  and  Burgrave  of 
Utrecht,  was  descended  from  the  old  Dutch  counts  who 
formerly  ruled  that  province  as  sovereign  princes.  So 
ancient  a  title  endeared  him  to  the  people,  among  whom 
the  memory  of  their  former  lords  still  survived,  and  was 
the  more  treasured  the  less  they  felt  they  had  gained  by 
the  change.  This  hereditary  splendor  increased  the  self- 
conceit  of  a  man  upon  whose  tongue  the  glory  of  his 
ancestors  continually  hung,  and  who  dwelt  the  more  on 
former  greatness,  even  amidst  its  ruins,  the  more  unprom- 
ising the  aspect  of  his  own  condition  became.  Excluded 
from  the  honors  and  employments  to  which,  in  his  opin- 
ion, his  own  merits  and  his  noble  ancestry  fully  entitled 
him  (a  squadron  of  light  cavalry  being  all  which  was 
entrusted  to  him),  he  hated  the  government,  and  did  not 
scru])le  boldly  to  canvass  and  to  rail  at  its  measures. 
By  these  means  he  won  the  hearts  of  the  peoj)le.  He 
also  favored  in  secret  the  evangelical  belief;  less,  how- 
ever, as  a  conviction  of  his  better  reason  than  as  an  oppo- 
sition to  the  government.  "With  more  loquacity  than 
eloquence,  and  more  audacity  than  courage,  he  was 
brave  rather  from  not  believing  in  danger  than  from 
being  superior  to  it.  Louis  of  Nassau  burned  for  the 
cause  which  he  defended,  Brederode   for  the  glory  of 


. EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLAXDS.        147 

being  its  defender;  the  former  "was  satisfied  in  acting  lor 
liis  party,  tlie  latter  discontented  if  he  did  not  stand  at 
its  head.  No  one  was  more  fit  to  lead  off  the  dance  in  a 
rebellion,  bnt  it  could  hardly  have  a  worse  ballet-master. 
Contemjitible  as  his  threatened  designs  really  were,  the 
illusion  of  the  multitude  might  have  imparted  to  them 
weight  and  terror  if  it  had  occurred  to  tliem  to  set  up  a 
pretender  in  his  person.  His  claim  to  the  possessions  of 
his  ancestors  was  an  empty  name ;  but  even  a  name 
was  now  sufticient  for  the  general  disaffection  to  rally 
round.  A  pamphlet  which  was  at  the  time  disseminated 
amongst  the  people  openly  called  him  the  heir  of  Hol- 
land; and  his  engraved  portrait,  which  was  publicly 
exhibited,  bore  the  boastful  inscri2:)tion  :  — 

Sum  Brederodus  ego,  Batavae  non  infima  gentis 
Gloria,  virtutem  non.  unica  pagina  claudit. 

(1565.)  Besides  these  two,  there  were  others  also 
from  amonsx  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Flemish  nobles : 
the  young  Count  Charles  of  Mansfeld,  a  son  of  that 
nobleman  whom  we  have  found  among  the  most  zealous 
royalists ;  the  Count  Kinlemburg  ;  two  Counts  of  Bergen 
and  of  Battenburg;  John  of  Marnix,  Baron  of  Tou- 
louse; Phili2)  of  Marnix,  Baron  of  St.  Aldegonde;  with 
several  others  who  joined  the  league,  which,  about  the 
middle  of  November,  in  the  year  15G5,  was  formed  at  the 
house  of  Von  Hammes,  king  at  arms  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  Here  it  Avas  that  six  men  decided  the  destiny 
of  their  country  (as  formerly  a  few  confederates  consum- 
mated the  liberty  of  Switzerland),  kindled  the  torch  of  a 
forty  years'  war,  and  laid  the  basis  of  a  freedom  which 
they  themselves  were  never  to  enjoy.  The  objects  of 
the  leao-ue  were  set  forth  in  the  followinac  declaration,  to 
which  Philip  of  Marnix  was  the  first  to  subscribe  his 
name :  "Whereas  certain  ill-disposed  persons,  under  the 
mask  of  a  pious  zeal,  but  in  reality  under  the  impulse  of 
avarice  and  ambition,  have  by  their  evil  counsels  per- 
suaded our  most  gracious  sovereign  the  king  to  introduce 
into  these  countries  the  abominable  tribunal  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, a  tribunal  diametrically  opposed  to  all  laws,  human 
and  divine,  and  in  cruelty  far  surj^assing  the  barbarous 


148        REVOLT  or  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

institutions  '  f heathenism ;  which  raises  the  inquisitors 
above  every  other  power,  and  debases  man  to  a  perpetual 
bondage,  and  by  its  snares  exposes  the  honest  citizen  to 
a  constant  fear  of  death,  inasmuch  as  any  one  (priest,  it 
may  be,  or  a  faithless  fi'iend,  a  Spaniard  or  a  reprobate), 
has  it  in  his  power  at  any  moment  to  cause  whom  he  will 
to  be  dragged  before  that  tribunal,  to  be  placed  in  con- 
finement, condemned,  and  executed  without  the  accused 
ever  being  allowed  to  face  his  accuser,  or  to  adduce 
proof  of  his  innocence;  we,  therefore,  the  undersigned, 
liave  bound  ourselves  to  watch  over  the  safety  of  our 
families,  our  estates,  and  our  own  persons.  To  this  we 
hereby  pledge  ourselves,  and  to  this  end  bind  ourselves 
as  a  sacred  fraternity,  and  vow  with  a  solemn  oath  to 
oppose  to  the  best  of  our  power  the  introduction  of  this 
tribunal  into  these  countries,  whether  it  be  attempted 
openly  or  secretly,  and  under  whatever  name  it  may  be 
disguised.  We  at  the  same  time  declare  that  we  are  far 
from  intending  anything  unlawful  against  the  king  oiir 
sovereign ;  rather  is  it  our  imalterable  ]>urpose  to  support 
and  defend  the  royal  prerogative,  and  to  maintain  peace, 
and,  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power,  to  put  down  all  rebellion. 
In  accordance  with  this  purpose  we  have  sworn,  and  now 
again  swear,  to  hold  sacred  the  government,  and  to 
respect  it  both  in  word  and  deed,  which  witness  Almighty 
God! 

"Further,  we  vow  and  swear  to  j^rotect  and  defend 
one  another,  in  all  times  and  places,  against  all  attacks 
whatsoever  touching  the  articles  which  are  set  foi'th  in 
this  covenant.  We  hereby  bind  ourselves  that  no  accu- 
sation of  any  of  our  followers,  in  whatever  name  it  may 
be  clothed,  whether  rebellion,  sedition,  or  otherwise, 
shall  avail  to  annul  our  oath  towards  the  accused,  or 
absolve  us  from  our  obligation  towards  him.  No  act 
wliich  is  directed  against  the  Inquisition  can  deserve  the 
name  of  a  rebellion.  Whoever,  therefore,  shall  be  placed 
in  arrest  on  any  such  charge,  we  here  pledge  ourselves  to 
assist  him  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability,  and  to  endeavor 
by  every  allowable  means  to  effect  his  liberation.  In 
til  is,  however,  as  in  all  matters,  but  especially  in  the  con- 
duct of  all  measures  against  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisi- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        149 

tion,  we  submit  ourselves  to  the  generaj  rr^  gulations  of 
the  league,  or  to  the  decision  of  those  waom  we  may 
unanimously  appoint  our  counsellors  and  leaders. 

"In  witness  hereof,  and  in  confirmation  of  this  our 
common  league  and  covenant,  we  call  upon  the  holy  name 
of  the  living  God,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  all 
that  are  therein,  who  searches  the  hearts,  the  consciences, 
and  the  thoughts,  and  knows  the  purity  of  ours.  We 
implore  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  success  and 
honor  may  crown  our  undertaking,  to  the  glory  of  His 
name,  and  to  the  peace  and  blessing  of  our  country ! " 

This  covenant  was  un mediately  translated  into  several 
languages,  and  quickly  disseminated   through  the  prov- 
inces.    To  swell  the  league  as  speedily  as  possible  each 
of  the  confederates  assembled  all  his  friends,  relations, 
adlierents,  and   retainers.      Great    banquets    were   held, 
which  lasted  whole  days  —  irresistible  temptations  for  a 
sensual,  luxurious  people,  in  whom  the  deepest  wretched- 
ness could  not  stifle  the  propensity  for  voluptuous  living. 
Whoever   repaired   to   these  banquets  —  and  every  one 
was  welcome  —  was   plied   with   officious    assurances  of 
friendship,  and,   when  heated  with  wine,  carried  away 
by  the  example  of  numbers,  and  overcome  by  the  fire  of 
a   wild   eloquence.     The   hands    of    many    were   guided 
while  they  subscribed   their   signatures;    the   hesitating 
M'ere  derided,  the  pusillanimous  threatened,  the  scruples 
of  loyalty  clamored  down;  some  even  were  quite  igno- 
rant what  they  were  signing,  and  were  ashamed  after- 
wards to  inquire.     To  many  whom  mere  levity  brought 
to    the   entertainment   the    general    enthusiasm   left    no 
choice,  while  the  splendor  of  the  confederacy  allured  the 
mean,  and  its  numbers  encouraged  tlie  timorous.     The 
abettors  of  the  league  liad  not  scrupled  at  the  artifice  of 
counterfeitins:  the  sisfnature  and  seals  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,   Counts    Eginont,   Horn,   Megen,   and   otiiers,   a 
trick  whicli  won  them  Juindreds  of  adlierents.     This  was 
done  (iopecially  with  a  view  of  influencing  the  officers  of 
the  army,  in  order  to  be  safe  in  tiiis  quarter,  if  matters 
should  come  at  last  to  violence.     The  device  succeeded 
with  many,  especially  with  subalterns,  and  Count  Brede- 
rode  even  drew  his  sword  u2:)on  an  ensign  who  wished 


150       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

time  for  consideration.  Men  of  all  classes  and  condi- 
tions signed  it.  Religion  made  no  difference.  Roman 
Catholic  jH-iests  even  were  associates  of  the  league.  The 
motives  were  not  the  same  with  all,  but  the  pretext  was 
similar.  The  Roman  Catholics  desired  simply  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Inquisition,  and  a  mitigation  of  the  edicts; 
the  Protestants  aimed  at  unlimited  freedom  of  con- 
science. A  few  daring  spirits  only  entertained  so  bold  a 
pro'ect  as  the  overthrow  of  the  present  government, 
wh.ie  the  needy  and  indigent  based  the  vilest  hopes  on  a 
general  anarchy.  A  farewell  entertainment,  which  about 
this  time  was  given  to  the  Counts  Schwarzenberg  and 
Ilolle  in  Breda,  and  another  shortly  afterwards  in  Hog- 
straten,  drew  many  of  the  principal  nobility  to  these  two 
places,  and  of  these  several  had  already  signed  the  cov- 
enant. The  Prince  of  Orange,  Counts  Egmont,  Horn, 
and  Megen  were  present  at  the  latter  banquet,  but  with- 
out any  concert  or  design,  and  without  having  themselves 
any  share  in  the  league,  although  one  of  Egmont's  own 
secretaries  and  some  of  the  servants  of  the  other  three 
noblemen  had  openly  joined  it.  At  this  entertainment 
three  hundred  persons  gave  in  their  adhesion  to  the  cov- 
enant, and  the  question  was  mooted  whether  the  whole 
body  should  present  themselves  before  the  regent  armed 
or  unarmed,  with  a  declaration  or  with  a  petition? 
Horn  and  Orange  (Egmont  would  not  countenance  the 
business  in  any  way)  were  called  in  as  arbiters  upon  this 
point,  and  they  decided  in  favor  of  the  more  moderate 
and  submissive  procedure.  By  taking  this  office  upon 
them  they  exposed  themselves  to  the  charge  of  having  in 
no  very  covert  manner  lent  their  sanction  to  the  enter- 
prise of  the  confederates.  In  compliance,  therefore,  Avith 
their  advice,  it  was  determined  to  present  their  address 
unarmed,  and  in  the  form  of  a  petition,  and  a  day  was 
ap])ointed  on  which  they  should  assemble  in  Brussels. 

The  first  intimation  the  regent  received  of  this  con- 
S])iracy  of  the  nobles  was  given  by  the  Count  of  Megen 
soon  after  his  return  to  the  capital.  "  There  was,"  he 
said,  *'  an  enterprise  on  foot ;  no  less  than  three  hundred 
of  the  nobles  were  implicated  in  it ;  it  referred  to  relig- 
ion ;  the  members  of  it  had  bound  themselves  together 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       151 

by  an  oath  ;  they  reckoned  much  on  foreign  aid  ;  she  would 
soon  know  more  about  it."  Though  urgently  pressed,  he 
would  give  her  no  further  information.  "A  nobleman," 
he  said,  "  had  confided  it  to  him  under  the  seal  of  secrecy, 
and  he  had  pledged  his  word  of  honor  to  him."  What 
really  withheld  him  from  giving  her  any  further  explana- 
tion was,  in  all  probability,  not  so  much  any  delicacy 
about  his  honor,  as  his  hatred  of  the  Inquisition,  which  he 
would  not  willingly  do  anything  to  advance.  Soon  after 
him.  Count  Egmont  delivered  to  the  regent  a  copy  of  the 
covenant,  and  also  gave  her  the  names  of  the  conspirators, 
with  some  few  exceptions.  Nearly  about  the  same  time 
the  Prince  of  Orange  wrote  to  her :  "  There  was,  as  he 
had  heard,  an  army  enlisted,  four  hundred  officers  were 
already  named,  and  twenty  thousand  men  would  presently 
appear  in  arms."  Thiis  the  rumor  was  intentionally  ex- 
aggerated, and  the  danger  was  multiplied  in  every 
mouth. 

The  regent,  petrified  with  alarm  at  the  first  announce- 
ment of  these  tidings,  and  guided  solely  by  her  fears, 
hastily  called  together  all  the  members  of  the  council  of 
state  who  happened  to  be  then  in  Brussels,  and  at  the 
same  time  sent  a  pressing  summons  to  the  Prince  of 
Orange  and  Count  Horn,  inviting  them  to  resume  their 
seats  in  the  senate.  Before  the  latter  could  arrive  she 
consulted  with  Egmont,  Megen,  and  Barlaimont  what 
course  was  to  be  adopted  in  the  present  dangerous  posture 
of  affairs.  The  question  debated  was  whether  it  would 
be  better  to  have  recourse  to  arms  or  to  yield  to  the 
emergency  and  grant  the  demands  of  the  confederates; 
or  whether  they  should  be  put  off  Avith  promises,  and  an 
appearance  of  compliance,  in  order  to  gain  time  for  pro- 
curing instructions  from  Spain,  and  obtaining  money  and 
troops?  For  the  first  plan  tlie  requisite  supplies  were 
wanting,  and,  what  was  equally  requisite,  confidence  in 
the  army,  of  which  there  seemed  reason  to  doubt  whether 
it  had  not  been  already  gained  by  the  conspirators.  The 
second  expedient  would  it  was  quite  clear  never  be  sanc- 
tioned by  the  king;  besides  it  would  serve  rather  to  raise 
than  depress  the  courage  of  the  confederates;  Avliile,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  compliance  with   their  reasonable  de- 


152       REVOLT  OP  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

mands  and  a  ready  unconditional  pardon  of  the  past 
would  in  all  probability  stifle  the  rebellion  in  the  cradle. 
The  last  opinion  was  supported  byMegen  and  Egmont 
but  opposed  by  Barlaimont.  "  Rumor,"  said  the  latter, 
"had  exaggerated  the  matter;  it  is  impossible  that  so 
formidable  an  armament  could  have  been  prepared  so 
secretly  and  so  rapidly.  It  was  but  a  band  of  a  few- 
outcasts  and  desperadoes,  instigated  by  two  or  three  en- 
thusiasts, nothing  more.  All  will  be  quiet  after  a  few 
heads  have  been  struck  off."  The  regent  determined  to 
await  the  opinion  of  the  council  of  state,  whicli  was 
shortly  to  assemble ;  in  the  meanwhile,  however,  she  was 
not  inactive.  The  fortifications  in  the  most  important 
places  were  inspected  and  the  necessary  repairs  speedily 
executed ;  her  ambassadors  at  foreign  courts  received 
orders  to  redouble  their  vigilance ;  expresses  were  sent 
off  to  Spain.  At  the  same  time  she  caused  the  report  to 
be  revived  of  the  near  advent  of  the  king,  and  in  her 
external  deportment  put  on  a  show  of  that  imperturbable 
firmness  which  awaits  attack  without  intending  easily  to 
yield  to  it.  At  the  end  of  March  (four  whole  months 
consequently  from  the  framing  of  the  covenant),  the 
whole  state  council  assembled  in  Brussels.  There  were 
present  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  Duke  of  Arschot, 
Counts  Egmont,  Bergen,  Megen,  Aremberg,  Horn,  Hog- 
straten,  Barlaimont,  and  others ;  the  Barons  Montigny 
and  Hachicourt,  all  the  knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  with 
the  President  Viglius,  State  Counsellor  Bruxelles,  and 
the  other  assessors  of  the  privy  council.  Several  letters 
Avere  produced  which  gave  a  clearer  insight  into  the 
nature  and  objects  of  the  conspiracy.  The  extremity  to 
which  the  regent  was  reduced  gave  the  disaffected  a 
power  which  on  the  present  occasion  they  did  not  neglect 
to  use.  Venting  their  long  suppressed  indignation,  they 
indulged  in  bitter  complaints  against  the  court  and 
against  the  government.  "  But  lately,"  said  tlie  Prince  of 
Orange,  "  tlie  king  sent  forty  thousand  gold  florins  to  the 
Queen  of  Scotland  to  support  her  in  her  undertakings 
against  England,  and  he  allows  his  Netherlands  to  be 
burdened  with  debt.  Not  to  mention  the  unseasonable- 
ness  of  this  subsidy  and   its  fruitless  expenditure,  why 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       153 

» 

should  he  bring  upon  us  the  resentment  of  a  queen,  who 
is  both  so  important  to  us  as  a  friend  and  as  an  enemy  so 
much  to  be  dreaded  ?  "  The  prince  did  not  even  refrain 
on  the  present  occasion  from  glancing  at  the  concealed 
hatred  which  the  king  was  suspected  of  cherishing  against 
the  family  of  Nassau  and  against  him  in  particular.  "It 
is  well  known,"  he  said,  "  that  he  has  plotted  with  the 
hereditary  enemies  of  my  house  to  take  away  my  life,  and 
that  he  waits  with  impatience  only  for  a  suitable  oppor- 
tunity." His  example  opened  the  lips  of  Count  Horn  also, 
and  of  many  others  besides,  who  with  passionate  ve- 
hemence descanted  on  their  own  merits  and  the  ingrati- 
tude of  the  king.  With  difficulty  did  the  regent  succeed 
in  silencing  the  tumult  and  in  recalling  attention  to  the 
proper  subject  of  the  debate.  The  question  was  whether 
the  confederates,  of  whom  it  was  now  known  that  they 
intended  to  appear  at  court  with  a  petition,  should  be 
admitted  or  not  ?  The  Duke  of  Arschot,  Counts  Arem- 
berg,  Megen,  and  Barlaimont  gave  their  negative  to  tlie 
proposition.  "  What  need  of  five  hundred  persons,"  said 
the  latter,  "to  deliver  a  small  memorial?  This  paradox 
of  humility  and  defiance  implies  no  good.  Let  them  send 
to  us  one  respectable  man  from  among  their  number 
without  pomp,  without  assumption,  and  so  submit  their 
application  to  us.  Otherwise,  shut  the  gates  upon  them, 
or  if  some  insist  on  their  admission  let  them  be  closely 
watched,  and  let  the  first  act  of  insolence  which  any  one 
of  them  shall  be  guilty  of  be  punished  with  death."  In 
this  advice  concurred  Count  Mansfeld,  whose  own  son 
was  among  the  conspirators  ;  he  had  even  threatened  to 
disinherit  his  son  if  he  did  not  quickly  abandon  the 
league. 

Counts  Megen,  also,  and  Aremberg  hesitated  to  receive 
the  petition ;  the  Prince  of  Orange,  however,  Counts  Eg- 
mont,  Horn,  Hogstraten,  and  others  voted  emphatically 
for  it.  «  The  confederates,"  they  declared,  "  were  known 
to  them  as  men  of  integrity  and  honor ;  a  great  part  of 
them  were  connected  with  themselves  by  friendship  and 
relationship,  and  they  dared  vouch  for  their  behavior. 
Every  subject  was  allowed  to  petition  ;  a  right  which  was 
enjoyed  by  the  meanest  individual  in  the  state  could  not 


154       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

without  injustice  be  denied  to  so  respectable  a  body  of 
men."     It  was  therefore  resolved  by  a  majority  of  votes 
to   admit   the  confederates   on   the  condition  that  they 
should  appear  unarmed  and  conduct  themselves  temper- 
ately.    The   squabbles   of   the   members  of   council  had 
occupied  the  greater  part  of  the  sitting,  so  that  it  was 
necessary  to  adjourn  the  discussion  to  the  following  day. 
In  order  that  the  principal  matter  in   debate   might  not 
again  be  lost  sight  of  in  useless  complaints  the  regent  at 
once   hastened   to   the   point:     "Bred erode,  we   are   in- 
formed," she  said,  "  is  coming  to  us,  with  an  address  in 
the  name  of  the  league,  demanding  the  abolition  of  the 
Inquisition  and  a  mitigation  of  the  edicts.     The  advice  of 
my  senate  is  to  guide  me  in  my  answer  to  him  ;  but  before 
you  give  your  opinions  on  this  point  permit  me  to  premise 
a  few  words.     I  am  told  that  there  are  many  even  amongst 
yourselves  who  load  the  religious  edicts  of  the  Emperor, 
my  father,  with  open  reproaches,  and  describe  them  to  the 
people  as  inhuman  and  barbarous.     Now  I  ask  you,  lords 
and  gentlemen,  knights  of  tlie  Fleece,  counsellors  of  his 
majesty  and  of  the  state,  whether  you  did  not  yourselves 
vote  for  these  edicts,  whether  the  states  of  the  realm  have 
not  recognized  them  as  lawful  ?     Why  is  that  now  blamed, 
which  was  formerly  declared  right?     Is  it  because  they 
have  now  become  even  more  necessary  than   they  then 
were?     Since  when  is  the  Inquisition  a  new  thing  in  the 
Netherlands  ?     Is  it  not  full  sixteen  years  ago  since  the 
Emperor  establislied  it  ?     And  wherein  is  it  more  cruel 
than  the  edicts  ?     If  it  be  allowed  that  the  latter  were  the 
work  of  wisdom,  if  the  universal  consent  of  the  states  has 
sanctioned   them  —  why  this   opposition  to   the  former, 
which  is  nevertheless  far  more  humane  than  the  edicts,  if 
they  are  to  be  observed  to  the  letter  ?  Speak  now  freely ; 
I   am  not  desirous  of  fettering  your  decision ;  but  it  is 
your  business  to  see  that  it  is  not  misled  by  passion  and 
prejudice."     The  council  of  state  was  again,  as  it  always 
had  been,  divided  between  two  opinions  ;  but  the  few  Avho 
spoke  for  the  Inquisition  and  the  literal  execution  of  the 
edicts  were  outvoted  by  the   opposite   party   with   the 
Prince  of  Orange  at  its  head.      "  Would  to  heaven,"  he 
began,  "  tliat  my  representations  had  been  then  thought 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        155 

worthy  of  attention,  when  as  yet  the  grounds  of  appre- 
hension were  remote ;  things  would  in  that  case  never 
have  been  carried  so  far  as  to  make  recourse  to  extreme 
measures  indispensable,  nor  would  men  have  been  plunged 
deeper  in  error  by  the  very  means  which  were  intended 
to  bec>-uile  them  from  their  delusion.  We  ai-e  all  unani- 
mous on  the  one  main  point.  We  all  wish  to  see  tlie 
Catholic  religion  safe ;  if  this  end  can  be  secured  without 
the  aid  of  the  Inquisition,  it  is  well,  and  we  offer  our 
wealth  and  our  blood  to  its  service  ;  but  on  this  very  point 
it  is  that  our  opinions  are  divided. 

"  Tiiere  are  two  kinds  of  inquisition  :  the  see  of  Rome 
lays  claim  to  one,  the  other  has,  from  time  immemorial, 
been  exercised  by  the  bishops.  The  force  of  prejudice 
and  of  custom  has  made  the  latter  light  and  supportable 
to  us.  It  will  find  little  opposition  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  the  augmented  numbers  of  the  bishops  will  make  it 
effective.  To  what  purpose  then  insist  on  the  former, 
the  mere  name  of  which  is  revoltinof  to  all  the  feelinsfs  of 
our  minds?  When  so  many  nations  exist  without  it 
why  should  it  be  imposed  on  us  ?  Before  Luther  appeared 
it  was  never  heard  of ;  but  the  troubles  with  Luther 
happened  at  a  time  when  there  was  an  inadequate  number 
of  spiritual  overseei'S,  and  when  the  few  bishops  were, 
moreover,  indolent,  and  the  licentiousness  of  the  clergy  ex- 
cluded them  from  the  office  of  j  udges.  Now  all  is  changed  ; 
we  now  count  as  many  bishops  as  there  are  provinces. 
Why  should  not  the  policy  of  the  government  adjust 
itself  to  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  times  ?  We 
want  leniency,  not  severity.  The  repugnance  of  the 
people  is  manifest  —  tliis  we  must  seek  to  appease  if  we 
would  not  have  it  burst  out  into  rebellion.  With  the 
death  of  Pius  IV.  the  full  powers  of  the  inquisitors  have 
expired ;  the  new  pope  has  as  yet  sent  no  ratification  of 
their  authority,  without  which  no  one  formerly  ventured 
to  exercise  his  office.  Now,  therefore,  is  the  time  when 
it  can  be  suspended  without  infringing  the  rights  of  any 
party. 

"  What  I  have  stated  with  regard  to  the  Inquisition 
holds  equally  good  in  respect  to  the  edicts  also.  The 
exigency  of   the  times  called   them  forth,  but  are   not 


156        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

those  times  passed?  So  long  an  experience  of  them 
ought  at  last  to  have  taught  us  that  against  hersey  no 
means  are  less  successful  than  the  fagot  and  sword. 
What  incredible  progress  has  not  the  new  religion  made 
during  only  the  last  few  years  in  the  provinces  ;  and  if 
we  investigate  the  cause  of  this  increase  we  shall  find  it 
principally  in  the  glorious  constancy  of  those  who  have 
fallen  sacrifices  to  the  truth  of  their  opinions.  Carried 
away  by  sympathy  and  admiration,  men  begin  to  weigh 
in  silence  whether  what  is  maintained  with  such  invin- 
cible courage  may  not  really  be  the  truth.  In  France 
and  in  England  the  same  severities  may  have  been 
inflicted  on  the  Protestants,  but  have  they  been  attended 
with  any  better  success  there  than  here  ?  The  very 
earliest  Christians  boasted  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
was  the  seed  of  the  church.  The  Emperor  Julian,  the 
most  terrible  enemy  that  Christianity  ever  experienced, 
was  fully  persuaded  of  this.  Convinced  that  persecution 
did  but  kindle  enthusiasm  he  betook  himself  to  ridicule 
and  derision,  and  found  these  weapons  far  more  effective 
than  force.  In  the  Greek  empire  different  teachers  of 
heresy  have  arisen  at  different  times.  Arius  nnder  Con- 
stantine,  Aetius  under  Constantius,  Nestorius  under 
Theodosius.  But  even  against  these  arch-heretics  and 
their  disciples  such  cruel  measures  were  never  resorted 
to  as  are  thought  necessary  against  our  unfortunate 
country — and  yet  where  are  all  those  sects  now  which 
once  a  whole  world,  I  had  almost  said,  could  not  contain? 
This  is  the  natural  course  of  heresy.  If  it  is  treated  wdth 
contempt  it  crumbles  into  insignificance.  It  is  as  iron, 
which,  if  it  lies  idle,  corrodes,  and  only  becomes  sharp  by 
use.  Let  no  notice  be  paid  to  it,  and  it  loses  its  most 
powerful  attraction,  the  magic  of  what  is  new  and  what 
is  forbidden.  Why  will  we  not  content  onrselves  with 
the  measures  which  have  been  approved  of  by  the 
wisdom  of  such  great  rulers  ?  Example  is  ever  the  safest 
guide. 

"  But  what  need  to  go  to  pagan  antiquity  for  guidance 
and  example  when  we  have  near  at  hand  the  glorious 
precedent  of  Charles  V.,  the  greatest  of  kings,  who  taught 
at  last  by  experience,  abandoned  the  bloody  path  of  per- 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEKT.ANIXS.  157 

secution,  and  for  many  years  before  his  abdication 
adopted  milder  measures.  And  Philip  himself,  our  most 
gracious  sovereign,  seemed  at  first  strongly  inclined  to 
leniency  until  the  counsels  of  Granvella  and  of  others 
like  him  changed  these  views  ;  but  with  what  right  or 
wisdom  they  may  settle  between  themselves.  To  me, 
however,  it  has  always  appeared  indispensable  that  legis- 
lation to  be  wise  and  successful  must  adjust  itself  to  the 
manners  and  maxhns  of  the  times.  In  conclusion,  I 
would  beg  to  remind  you  of  the  close  understanding 
which  subsists  between  the  Huguenots  and  the  Flemish 
Protestants.  Let  us  beware  of  exasperating  tliem  any 
further.  Let  us  not  act  the  part  of  French  Catholics 
towards  them,  lest  they  should  play  the  Huguenots 
against  us,  and,  like  the  latter,  plunge  their  country  into 
the  horrors  of  a  civil  war."  * 

It  was,  perhaps,  not  so  much  the  irresistible  truth  of 
his  arguments,  which,  moreover,  were  supported  by  a 
decisive  majority  in  the  senate,  as  rather  the  ruinous 
state  of  the  military  resources,  and  the  exhaustion  of 
the  treasury,  that  prevented  the  adoption  of  the  opposite 
opinion  which  recommended  an  appeal  to  the  force  of 
arms  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  had  chiefly  to  thank  for 
the  attention  which  now  at  last  was  paid  to  his  represen- 
tations. In  order  to  avert  at  first  the  violence  of  the 
storm,  and  to  gain  time,  which  was  so  necessary  to  place 
the  government  in  a  better  sate  of  preparation,  it  was 
agreed  that  a  portion  of  the  demands  should  be  accorded 
to  the  confederates.  It  was  also  resolved  to  mitigate  the 
penal  statutes  of  the  Emperor,  as  he  himself  would  cer- 
tainly mitigate  them,  were  he  again  to  appear  among 
them  at  that  day  —  and  as,  indeed,  he  had  once  shown 
nnder  circumstances  very  similar  to  the  present  that  he 
did  not  think  it  derogatory  to  his  high  dignity  to  do. 
The  Inquisition  was  not  to  be  introduced  in  any  place 
where  it  did  not  already  exist,  and  where  it  had  been  it 
should  adopt  a  milder  system,  or  even  be  entirely  sus- 

*  No  one  need  wonder,  says  Bnrgtindias  (a  vehement  stickler  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  and  the  Spanish  party),  that  the  speech  of  this 
prince  evinced  so  much  acquaintance  -with  philosophy  ;  he  had  acquired  it  in 
his  intercourse  with  Balduiu.  180.  Barry,  174-178.  Hopper,  72.  Strada, 
123, 124. 


158        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

pended,  especially  since  the  inquisitors  had  not  yet  been 
confirmed  in  their  office  by  the  pope.  The  latter  reason 
was  put  prominently  forward,  in  order  to  deprive  the 
Protestants  of  the  gratification  of  ascribing  the  conces- 
sions to  any  fear  of  their  own  power,  or  to  the  justice  of 
tlieir  demands.  The  privy  council  was  commissioned  to 
draw  out  this  decree  of  the  senate  without  delay.  Thus 
prepared  the  confederates  were  awaited. 

THE    GUEUX. 

The  members  of  the  senate  had  not  yet  dispersed, 
when  all  Brussels  resounded  with  the  report  that  the 
confederates  were  approaching  the  town.  They  con- 
sisted of  no  more  than  two  hundred  horse,  but  rumor 
greatly  exaggerated  their  numbers.  Filled  with  conster- 
nation, the  regent  consulted  wdth  her  ministers  whether 
it  was  best  to  close  the  gates  on  the  approaching  party  or 
to  seek  safety  in  flight  ?  Both  suggestions  were  rejected 
as  dishonorable ;  and  the  peaceable  entry  of  the  nobles 
soon  allayed  all  fears  of  violence.  The  first  morning 
after  their  arrival  they  assembled  at  Kuilemberg  house, 
wliere  Brederode  administered  to  them  a  second  oath, 
binding  tliem  before'  all  other  duties  to  stand  by  one 
another,  and  even  with  arras  if  necessary.  At  this  meet- 
ing a  letter  from  Spain  was  produced,  in  which  it  was 
stated  that  a  certain  Protestant,  whom  they  all  knew  and 
valued,  had  been  burned  alive  in  that  country  by  a  slow 
fire.  After  these  and  similar  preliminaries  he  called  on 
them  one  after  another  by  name  to  take  the  new  oath 
and  renew  the  old  one  in  their  own  names  and  in  those 
of  the  absent.  Tlie  next  day,  the  5th  of  April,  1556, 
was  fixed  for  the  presentation  of  the  petition.  Their 
numbers  now  amounted  to  between  three  and  four 
liundi-ed.  Amongst  them  were  many  retainers  of  the 
liigh  nobility,  as  also  several  servants  of  the  king  himself 
and  of  the  ducliess. 

With  the  Counts  of  Nassau  and  Brederode  at  their 
head,  and  formed  in  ranks  of  four  by  four,  they  advanced 
in  procession  to  the  palace ;  all  Brussels  attended  the 
unwonted   spectacle  in  silent  astonishment.     Here  were 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        159 

to  be  seen  a  body  of  men  advancing  with  too  much  bold- 
ness and  confidence  to  loolc  like  supplicants,  and  led  by 
two  men  who  were  not  wont  to  be  petitioners ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  Avith  so  much  order  and  stillness  as  do 
not  usually  accompany  rebellion.  The  regent  received 
the  procession  surrounded  by  all  her  counsellors  and  the 
Knights  of  the  Fleece.  "  These  noble  Netherlanders," 
thus^Brederode  respectfully  addressed  her,  "who  here 
present  themselves  before  your  highness,  wish  in  their  own 
name,  and  of  many  others  besides  who  are  ^  shortly  to 
arrive,  to  present  to  you  a  petition  of  Avhose  importance 
as  well  as  of  their  own  humility  this  solemn  procession 
must  convince  you.  I,  as  speaker  of  this  body,  entreat 
you  to  receive  our  petition,  which  contains  nothing  but 
what  is  in  unison  with  the  laws  of  our  country  and  the 
honor  of  the  king." 

"  If  this  petition,"  replied  Margaret,  "  really  contains 
nothing  which  is  at  variance  either  with  the  good  of  the 
country,  or  with  the  authority  of  the  king,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  it  will  be  favorably  considered."  "  They  had 
learnt,"  continued  the  spokesman,  "with  indignation  and 
regret  that  suspicious  objects  had  been  imputed  to  their 
association,  and  that  interested  parties  had  endeavored 
to  pi-ejudice  her  highness  against  him  ;  they  therefore 
craved  that  she  would  name  the  authors  of  so  grave  an 
accusation,  and  compel  them  to  bring  their  charges  pub- 
licly, and  in  due  form,  in  order  that  he  who  should  be 
found  guilty  might  suffer  the  punishment  of  his  de- 
merits." "  Undoubtedly,"  replied  the  regent,  "  she  had 
received  unfavorable  rumors  of  their  designs  and  alliance. 
She  could  not  be  blamed,  if  in  consequence  she  had 
thought  it  requisite  to  call  the  attention  of  the  governors 
of  tlfe  provinces  to  the  matter ;  but,  as  to  giving  up  the 
names  of  her  informants  to  betray  state  secrets,"  she 
added,  with  an  appearance  of  displeasure,  "that  could  not 
in  justice  be  required  of  her."  She  then  appointed  the 
next  day  for  answering  their  petition  ;  and  in  the  mean- 
time she  proceeded  to  consult  the  members  of  her  coun- 
cil upon  it. 

"  Never  "  (so  ran  the  petition  which,  according  to  some, 
was  drawn  up   by  the  celebrated  Balduin),  "never  had 


IGO  REA'OLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

they  failed  in  their  loyalty  to  their  king,  and  nothing  new 
could  be  farther  from  their  hearts;  but  they  Avcnild 
rather  run  the  risk  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  their 
sovereign  than  allow  him  to  remain  longer  in  ignorance 
of  the  evils  with  which  their  native  country  was  menaced, 
by  the  forcible  introduction  of  the  Inquisition  and  the 
continued  enforcement  of  the  edicts.  They  had  long  re- 
mained consoling  themselves  with  the  expectation  that  a 
general  assembly  of  the  states  would  be  summoned  to 
remedy  these  grievances;  but  now  that  even  this  hope 
was  extinguished,  they  held  it  to  be  their  duty  to  give 
timely  warning  to  the  regent.  They,  therefore,  entreated 
her  highness  to  send  to  Madrid  an  envoy,  well  disposed, 
and  fully  acquainted  with  the  state  and  temper  of  the 
times,  who  should  endeavor  to  persuade  the  king  to  com- 
ply with  the  demands  of  the  whole  nation,  and  abolish 
the  Inquisition,  to  revoke  the  edicts,  and  in  their  stead 
cause  new  and  more  humane  ones  to  be  drawn  up  at  a 
general  assembly  of  the  states.  But,  in  the  meanwhile, 
until  they  could  learn  the  king's  decision,  they  prayed 
that  the  edicts  and  the  operations  of  the  Inquisition  be 
suspended."  "  If,"  they  concluded,  "  no  attention  should 
be  paid  to  their  humble  request,  they  took  God,  the  king, 
the  regent,  and  all  her  counsellors  to  witness  that  they 
had  done  their  part,  and  were  not  responsible  for  any 
unfortunate  result  that  might  happen." 

The  following  day  the  confederates,  marching  in  the 
same  order  of  procession,  but  in  still  greater  numbers 
(Counts  Bergen  and  Kuilemberg  having,  in  the  interim, 
joined  them  with  their  adherents),  appeared  before  the 
regent  in  order  to  receive  her  answer.  It  Avas  Avritten  on 
the  margin  of  the  petition,  and  was  to  the  effect,  "that 
entirely  to  suspend  the  Inquisition  and  the  edicts,  even 
temporarily,  was  beyond  her  powers ;  but  in  compliance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  confederates  she  was  ready  to 
despatch  one  of  the  nobles  to  the  king  in  Spain,  and  also 
to  support  their  petition  with  all  her  influence.  In  the 
meantime,  she  Avould  recommend  the  inquisitors  to  ad- 
minister their  office  with  moderation  ;  but  in  retm-n  she 
should  expect  on  the  part  of  the  league  that  they  should 
abstain  from  all  acts  of  violence,  and  undertake  nothing 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        161 

to  the  prejudice  of  the  Catholic  faith."  Little  as  these 
vague  and  general  promises  satisfied  the  confederates, 
they  were,  nevertheless,  as  much  as  they  could  have 
reasonably  expected  to  gain  at  first.  The  granting  or 
refusing  of  the  petition  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  pri- 
mary object  of  the  league.  Enough  for  them  at  present 
that  it  was  once  recognized,  enough  that  it  was  now,  as  it 
were,  an  established  body,  which  by  its  power  and 
threats  might,  if  necessary,  overawe  the  government. 
The  confederates,  therefore,  acted  quite  consistently  with 
their  designs,  in  contenting  themselves  with  this  answer, 
and  referring  the  rest  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  king. 
As,  indeed,  the  whole  pantomime  of  petitioning  had  only 
been  invented  to  cover  the  more  daring  plan  of  the 
league,  until  it  should  have  strength  enough  to  show 
itself  in  its  true  light,  they  felt  that  much  more  depended 
on  their  being  able  to  continue  this  mask,  and  on  the 
favorable  reception  of  their  petition,  than  on  its  speedily 
being  granted.  In  a  new  memorial,  which  they  delivered 
three  days  after,  they  pressed  for  an  express  testimonial 
from  the  regent  that  they  had  done  no  more  than  their 
duty,  and  been  guided  simply  by  their  zeal  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  king.  When  the  duchess  evaded  a  declara- 
tion, they  even  sent  a  person  to  repeat  this  request  in  a 
private  interview,  "Time  alone  and  their  future  be- 
havior," she  replied  to  this  person,  "  would  enable  her  to 
judge  of  their  designs." 

The  league  had  its  origin  in  banquets,  and  a  banquet 
gave  it  form  and  perfection.  On  the  very  day  that  the 
second  petition  was  presented  Brederode  entertained 
the  confederates  in  Kuilemberg  house.  About  three 
Imndred  guests  assembled  ;  intoxication  gave  them  cour- 
age, and  their  audacity  rose  with  their  numbers.  During 
the  conversation  one  of  their  number  lia]ipened  to  remark 
that  he  had  overheard  the  Count  of  Barlaimont  whi8j)er 
in  French  to  the  regent,  who  was  seen  to  turn  pale  on 
the  delivery  of  the  petitions,  that  "she  need  not  be  afraid 
of  a  band  of  beggars  (guenx);"  (in  fact,  the  majority  of 
them  had  by  their  bad  management  of  their  incomes  only 
too  well  deserved  this  appellation.)  Now,  as  the  very 
name  for  their  fraternity  was  the  very  thing  which  had 


162       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

most  perplexed  them,  an  expression  was  eagerly  caught 
up,  which,  while  it  cloaked  the  presumption  of  their 
enterprise  in  humility,  was  at  the  same  time  appropriate 
to  them  as  petitioners.  Immediately  they  drank  to  one 
another  under  this  name,  and  the  cry  "long  live  the 
Gueux!"  was  accompanied  with  a  general  shout  of 
applause.  After  the  cloth  had  been  removed  Brederode 
appeared  with  a  wallet  over  his  shoulder  similar  to  that 
which  the  vagrant  pilgrims  and  mendicant  monks  of  the 
time  used  to  carry,  and  after  returning  thanks  to  all  for 
their  accession  to  the  league,  and  boldly  assuring  them 
that  he  was  ready  to  venture  life  and  limb  for  every 
individual  present,  he  drank  to  the  health  of  the  whole 
company  out  of  a  wooden  beaker.  The  cup  went  round 
and  every  one  uttered  the  same  vow  as  he  set  it  to  his 
lips.  Then  one  after  the  other  they  received  the  beggar's 
purse,  and  each  hung  it  on  a  nail  which  he  had  appro- 
priated to  himself.  The  shouts  and  uproar  attending 
this  buffoonery  attracted  the  Prince  of  Orange  and 
Counts  Egmont  and  Horn,  who  by  chance  were  passing 
the  spot  at  the  very  moment,  and  on  entering  the  house 
were  boisterously  pressed  by  Brederode,  as  host,  to  remain 
and  drink  a  glass  with  them.* 

The  entrance  of  three  such  influential  personages 
renewed  the  mirth  of  the  guests,  and  their  festivities 
soon  passed  the  bounds  of  moderation.  Many  were 
intoxicated ;  guests  and  attendants  mingled  together 
without  distinction ;  the  serious  and  the  ludici'ous, 
drunken  fancies  and  affairs  of  state  were  blended  one 
with  another  in  a  burlesque  medley  ;  and  the  discussions 
on  the  general  distress  of  the  country  ended  in  the  wild 
u]>roar  of  a  bacchanalian  revel.  But  it  did  not  stop  here  ; 
what  they  had  resolved  on  in  the  moment  of  intoxication 
they  attem]ited  when  sober  to  carry  into  execution.  It 
was  necessary  to  manifest  to  the  people  in  some  sti-iking 

*  "But,"  Kginont  asserted  in  his  written  defence,  "we  drank  only  one 
single  small  glass,  and  thereupon  they  cried  "long  live  the  king  and  the 
Gueux!'  Til  is  was  the  first  time  that  I  heard  that  ai>pellation,  an<l  it  cer- 
tainly ilid  not  please  me.  But  the  times  were  so  bad  that  one  was  often 
compelled  to  share  in  much  that  was  against  one's  inclination,  and  I  knew 
nut  l)ut  I  was  doing  an  innocent  thing."  Proc/'S  eriminels  iles  Comtes 
d'I'"giii<>iit,  etc.,  7.  1.  Egmoiit'8  defence,  Hopper,  94.  Strada,  127-130.  Bur- 
gund.,  IR.'i.  187. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       163 

shape  the  existence  of  their  protectors,  and  likewise  to 
fan  the  zeal  of  the  faction  by  a  visible  emblem ;  for 
this  end  nothing  could  be  better  than  to  adopt  publicly 
this  name  of  Gueux,  and  to  borrow  from  it  the  tokens  of 
the  association.  In  a  few  days  the  town  of  Brussels 
swarmed  with  ash-gray  garments  such  as  were  usually 
worn  by  mendicant  friars  and  i^enitents.  Every  con- 
federate put  his  whole  family  and  domestics  in  this  dress. 
Some  carried  wooden  bowls  thinly  overlaid  with  plates 
of  silver,  cups  of  the  same  kind,  and  wooden  knives ;  in 
short  the  whole  parapliernalia  of  the  beggar  tribe,  which 
they  either  fixed  around  their  hats  or  suspended  from 
their  girdles.  Round  the  neck  they  wore  a  golden  or 
silver  coin,  afterwards  called  the  Geusen  penny,  of  which 
one  side  bore  the  effigj  of  the  king,  with  the  inscription, 
"True  to  the  king;"  on  the  other  side  were  seen  two 
hands  folded  together  holding  a  wallet,  with  the  words 
"as  far  as  the  beggar's  scrip."  Hence  the  origin  of  the 
name  "  Gueux,"  which  was  subsequently  borne  in  the 
Netherlands  by  all  who  seceded  from  popery  and  took 
up  arms  against  the  king. 

Before  the  confederates  separated  and  dispersed  among 
the  provinces  they  presented  themselves  once  more  before 
the  duchess,  in  order  to  remind  her  of  the  necessity  of 
leniency  towards  the  heretics  until  the  arrival  of  the 
king's  answer  from  Spain,  if  she  did  not  wish  to  drive  the 
people  to  extremities.  "If,  however,"  they  added,  "a 
contrary  behavior  should  give  rise  to  any  evils  they  at 
least  must  be  regarded  as  having  done  then-  duty." 

To  this  the  regent  replied,  "  she  hoped  to  be  able  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  would  render  it  impossible  for 
disorders  to  ensue  ;  but  if,  nevertheless,  they  did  occur, 
she  could  ascribe  them  to  no  one  but  the  confederates. 
She  therefore  earnestly  admonished  them  on  their  part 
to  fulfil  their  engagements,  but  especially  to  receive  no 
new  members  into  the  league,  to  hold  no  more  private 
assemblies,  and  generally  not  to  attempt  any  novel  and 
unconstitutional  measures."  And  in  order  to  tranquillize 
their  minds  she  commanded  her  jn-ivate  secretary,  Berti, 
to  show  them  the  lettei's  to  the  inquisitors  and  secular 
judges,  wherein  they  were  enjoined  to  observe  modera 


164       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

tion  towards  all  those  who  had  not  aggravated  theii 
heretical  offences  by  any  civil  crime.  Before  their 
departure  from  Brussels  they  named  four  presidents  from 
amon"'  their  number  who  were  to  take  care  of  the  affairs 
of  the''lea"-ue,  and  also  particular  administrators  for  each 
province.''  A  few  were  left  behind  in  Brussels  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  on  all  the  movements  of  the  court.  Bre- 
derode,  Kuilemberg,  and  Bergen  at  last  quitted  the  town, 
attended  by  five  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen,  saluted  it 
once  more  beyond  the  walls  with  a  discharge  of  musketry, 
and  then  the  three  leaders  parted,  Brederode  taking  the 
road  to  Antwerp,  and  the  two  others  to  Guelders.  The 
reo'ent  had  sent  off  an  express  to  Antwerp  to  warn  the 
magistrate  of  that  town  against  him.  On  his  arrival 
more  than  a  thousand  persons  thronged  to  the  hotel 
Aviiere  he  had  taken  up  his  abode.  Showing  himself  at 
a  window,  with  a  full  wineglass  in  his  hand,  he  thus 
addressed  them :  "  Citizens  of  Antwerp  !  I  am_  here  at 
the  hazard  of  ray  life  and  my  property  to  relieve  you 
from  the  oppressive  burden  of  the  Inquisition.  If  you 
are  ready  to  share  this  enterprise  with  me,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge me  as  your  leader,  accept  the  health  which 
I  here  drink  to  you,  and  hold  up  your  hands  in  testimony 
of  your  approbation."  Hereupon  he  drank  to  their  health, 
and  all  hands  were  raised  amidst  clamorous  shouts  of 
exultation.     After  this  heroic  deed  he  quitted.  Antwerp. 

Immediately  after  the  delivery  of  the  "  petition  of  the 
nobles,"  the  regent  had  caused  a  new  form  of  the  edicts 
to  be  drawn  u])  in  the  privy  council,  which  should  keep 
tlie  mean  between  the  commands  of  the  king  and  the 
demands  of  the  confederates.  But  the  next  question  that 
arose  was  to  determine  whether  it  would  be  advisable 
immediately  to  ])romulgate  this  mitigated  form,  or  mode- 
ration, as  it  was  commonly  called,  or  to  submit  it  first  to 
tlie  king  for  liis  ratification.  The  privy  council  wlio 
maintained  tliat  it  wonlil  be  presumptuous  to  take  a  stop 
so  important  and  so  contrary  to  the  declared  sentiments 
of  the  rmmarch  without  having  first  obtained  his  sanction, 
opposed  the  vote  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  who  supported 
tlio  former  proposition.  Besides,  they  urged,  there  was 
cause  to  fear  that  it  would  not  even  content  the  nation. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        165 

A  "moderation"  devised  with  the  assent  of  the  states 
was  what  they  particularly  insisted  on.  In  order,  there- 
fore, to  gain  the  consent  of  the  states,  or  rather  to  obtain 
it  from  them  by  stealth,  the  regent  artfully  proi)Ounded 
the  question  to  the  provinces  singly,  and  first  of  all  to 
those  which  possessed  the  least  freedom,  such  as  Artois, 
Namur,  and  Luxemburg.  Thus  she  not  only  prevented 
one  province  encouraging  another  in  opposition,  but  also 
gained  this  advantage  by  it,  that  the  freer  provinces,  such 
as  Flanders  and  Brabant,  which  were  prudently  reserved 
to  the  last,  allowed  themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
example  of  the  others.  By  a  very  illegal  procedure  the 
representatives  of  the  towns  were  taken  by  surprise,  and 
their  consent  exacted  before  they  could  confer  with  their 
constituents,  while  complete  silence  was  imposed  upon 
them  with  regard  to  the  whole  transaction.  By  these 
means  the  regent  obtained  the  unconditional  consent  of 
some  of  the  provinces  to  the  "moderation,"  and,  Avith  a 
few  slight  changes,  that  of  other  provinces.  Luxemburg 
and  Namur  subscribed  it  without  scruple.  The  states  of 
Artois  simply  added  the  condition  that  false  informers 
should  be  subjected  to  a  retributive  penalty ;  those  of 
Hainault  demanded  that  instead  of  confiscation  of  the 
estates,  which  directly  militated  against  their  privileges, 
another  discretionary  punishment  should  be  introduced. 
Flanders  called  for  the  entire  abolition  of  the  Liquisition, 
and  desired  that  the  accused  might  be  secured  in  right  of 
appeal  to  their  own  province.  The  states  of  Brabant 
were  outwitted  by  the  inti'igues  of  the  court.  Zealand, 
Holland,  Utrecht,  Guelders,  and  Friesland  as  being  prov- 
inces which  enjoyed  the  most  important  privileges,  and 
wliich,  moreover,  watched  over  them  witli  the  greatest 
jealousy,  were  never  asked  for  their  opinion.  The  pro- 
vincial courts  of  judicature  had  also  been  required  to  make 
a  report  on  the  projected  amendment  of  the  law,  but 
we  may  well  suppose  that  it  was  unfavorable,  as  it  never 
reached  Spain.  From  the  principal  cause  of  this  "mode- 
ration," Avhich,  however,  really  deserved  its  name,  we  may 
form  a  judgment  of  the  general  character  of  the  edicts 
themselves.  "  Sectarian  writers,"  it  ran,  "the  heads  and 
teachers  of   sects,  as  also   those  who  conceal   heretical 


1()6  KEVOLT    OF    THE    NETHRRT>ANDS. 

jneetings,  or  cause  any  other  public  scandal,  shall  be 
punished  with  the  gallows,  and  their  estates,  where  the 
law  of  the  jDrovince  permit  it,  confiscated  ;  but  if  they 
abjure  their  errors,  their  j^unishment  shall  be  commuted 
into  decapitation  with  the  sword,  and  their  effects  shall  be 
preserved  to  their  families."  A  cruel  snare  for  parental 
affection  !  Less  grievous  heretics,  it  was  further  enacted, 
shall,  if  penitent,  be  pardoned  ;  and  if  impenitent  shall 
be  compelled  to  leave  the  country,  without,  however,  for- 
feiting their  estates,  unless  by  continuing  to  lead  others 
astray  they  deprive  themselves  of  the  benefit  of  this  pro- 
vision. The  Anabaptists,  however,  were  expressly  ex- 
cluded from  benefiting  by  this  clause ;  these,  if  they  did 
not  clear  themselves  by  the  most  thorough  repentance, 
were  to  forfeit  their  possessions;  and  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  relapsed  after  penitence,  that  is,  were  back- 
sliding heretics,  they  were  to  be  put  to  death  without 
mercy.  The  greater  regard  for  life  and  property  Avhich 
is  observable  in  this  ordinance  as  compared  with  the 
edicts,  and  Avhich  we  might  be  tempted  to  ascribe  to 
a  change  of  intention  in  the  Spanish  ministry,  was  nothing 
more  than  a  compulsory  step  extorted  by  the  determined 
opposition  of  the  nobles.  So  little,  too,  were  the  people 
in  the  Netherlands  satisfied  by  this  "  moderation,"  Avhich 
fundamentally  did  not  remove  a  single  abuse,  that  instead 
of  "moderation  "  (mitigation),  they  indignantly  called  it 
"  moorderation,"  that  is,  murdering. 

After  the  consent  of  the  states  had  in  this  manner  been 
extorted  from  them,  the  "moderation"  was  submitted  to 
the  council  of  the  state,  and,  after  receiving  their  signa- 
tures, forwarded  to  the  king  in  Spain  in  order  to  receive 
from  his  ratification  the  force  of  law. 

The  embassy  to  Madrid,  which  had  been  agreed  upon 
with  the  confederates,  was  at  the  outset  entrusted  to  the 
]Marquis  of  Bergen,*  who,  however,  from  a  distrust  of 
the  present  disposition  of  the  king,  which  was  only  too 
well  grounded,  and  from  reluctance  to  engage  alone  in  so 
delicate  a  business,  begged  for  a  coadjutor.  "He  obtained 

*  This  :\Tarquis  of  Rorgcii  is  to  bo  distingnislied  from  CoiuitW^illiam  of 
ncr;rtn,  wlio  was  ruuoiig  tho  Jirst  who  subscribed  tko  covenaut.  Vigl.  ad 
Hopper,  Letter  Vll. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        167 

one  in  the  Baron  of  Montigny,  Avho  had  previously  been 
employed  in  a  similar  duty,  and  had  discharged  it  with 
hif^h  credit.  As,  however,  circumstances  had  since  altered 
so'^much  that  he  had  just  anxiety  as  to  his  present  recep- 
tion in  Madrid  for  his  greater  safety,  he  stipulated  with 
the  duchess  that  she  should  write  to  the  monarch  pre- 
viously ;  and  that  he,  with  his  companion,  should,  in  the 
meanwhile,  travel  slowly  enough  to  give  time  for  the 
king's  answer  reaching  him  en  route.  His  good  genius 
wished,  as  it  appeared,  to  save  him  from  the  terrible  fate 
which  awaited  him  in  Madrid,  for  his  departure  w^as  de- 
layed by  an  unexpected  obstacle,  the  Marquis  of  Bergen 
being  disabled  from  setting  out  immediately  through  a 
wound  which  he  received  from  the  blow  of  a  tennis-ball. 
At  last,  however,  yielding  to  the  pressing  importunities  of 
the  x-egent,  who  was  anxious  to  expedite  the  business,  he 
set  out  alone,  not,  as  he  hoped,  to  carry  the  cause  of  his 
nation,  but  to  die  for  it. 

In  the  meantime  the  posture  of  affairs  had  changed  so 
greatly  in  the  Netherlands,  the  step  which  the  nobles  had 
recently  taken  had  so  nearly  brought  on  a  complete  rup- 
ture with  the  government,  that  it  seemed  impossible  for 
the  Prince  of  Orange  and  his  friends  to  maintain  any 
longer  the  intermediate  and  delicate  position  wdiich  they 
had  hitherto  held  between  the  country  and  the  court,  or 
to  reconcile  the  contradictory  duties  to  which  it  gave 
rise.  Great  must  have  been  the  restraint  which,  with 
their  mode  of  thinking,  they  had  to  put  on  themselves 
not  to  take  part  in  this  contest ;  much,  too,  must  tlieir 
natural  love  of  liberty,  their  patriotism,  and  their  prin- 
ciples of  toleration  have  suffered  from  the  constraint 
which  their  official  station  imposed  upon  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  Philip's  distrust,  the  little  regard  which  now 
for  a  long  time  had  been  paid  to  their  advice,  and  the 
marked  slights  which  the  duchess  publicly  put  upon 
them,  had  greatly  contributed  to  cool  their  zeal  for  the 
service,  and  to  render  irksome  the  longer  continuance  of 
a  part  which  they  played  with  so  much  repugnance  and 
with  so  little  tlianks.  This  feeling  was  strengthened 
by  several  intimations  they  received  from  Spain  which 
j)laced  beyond  doubt  the  great  displeasure  of  the  king  at 


168       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

the  petition  of  the  nobles,  and  his  little  satisfaction  with 
their  own  behavior  on  that  occasion,  while  they  were  also 
led  to  expect  that  he  was  about  to  enter  upon  measures, 
to  which,  as  favorable  to  the  liberties  of  their  country, 
and  for  the  most  part  friends  or  blood  relations  of  the 
confederates,  they  could  never  lend  their  countenance 
or  support.  On  the  name  which  should  be  a])plied  in 
Spain  to  the  Confederacy  of  the  nobles  it  principally 
depended  what  course  they  should  follow  for  the  future. 
If  tlie  petition  should  be  called  rebellion  no  alternative 
would  be  left  them  but  either  to  come  prematurely  to  a 
dangerous  explanation  with  the  court,  or  to  aid  it  in 
treating  as  enemies  those  with  Avhom  they  had  both  a 
fellow-feeling  and  a  common  interest.  This  perilous  al- 
ternative could  only  be  avoided  by  withdrawing  entirely 
from  public  affairs ;  this  plan  they  had  once  before  practi- 
cally adopted,  and  under  present  circumstances  it  Avas 
something  more  than  a  simple  expedient.  The  whole 
nation  had  their  eyes  upon  them.  An  unlimited  con- 
jRdence  in  their  integrity,  and  the  universal  veneration  for 
their  persons,  which  closely  bordered  on  idolatry,  would 
ennoble  the  cause  which  they  might  make  their  own  and 
ruin  that  which  they  should  abandon.  Their  share  in  the 
administration  of  the  state,  though  it  were  notliing  more 
tlian  nominal,  kept  the  opposite  party  in  check ;  Avhile 
they  attended  the  senate  violent  measures  were  avoided 
because  their  continued  presence  still  favored  some  ex- 
pectations of  succeeding  by  gentle  means.  The  with- 
liolding  of  their  ajDprobation,  even  if  it  did  not  i^roceed 
from  their  hearts,  dispirited  the  faction,  which,  on  the 
contrary,  would  exert  its  full  strength  so  soon  as  it  could 
reckon  even  distantly  on  obtaining  so  weiglity  a  sanction. 
The  very  measures  of  the  government  which,  if  they 
came  through  their  hands,  were  certain  of  a  favorable 
reception  and  issue,  would  without  them  prove  suspected 
and  futile ;  even  the  royal  concessions,  if  they  Avere  not 
obtained  by  the  mediation  of  these  friends  of  the  people, 
would  fail  of  the  chief  part  of  their  efficacy.  Besides, 
their  retirement  from  public  affairs  Avould  deprive  the 
regent  of  the  benefit  of  their  advice  at  a  time  when  coun- 
sel was  most  indispensable  to  her ;  it  would,  moreover, 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       169 

leave  the  preponderance  with  a  party  which,  blindly  de- 
pendent on  the  court,  and  ignorant  of  the  peculiarities 
of  republican  character,  would  neglect  nothing  to  aggra- 
vate the  evil,  and  to  drive  to  extremity  the  already 
exasperated  mind  of  the  public. 

All  these  motives  (and  it  is  open  to  every  one,  ac- 
cording to  his  good  or  bad  opinion  of  the  prince,  to  say 
which  Avas  the  most  influential)  tended  alike  to  move  him 
to  desert  the  regent,  and  to  divest  himself  of  all  share  in 
public  affairs.  "An  opportunity  for  putting  this  resolve 
into  execution  soon  presented  itself.  The  prince  had 
voted  for  the  immediate  promulgation  of  the  newly- 
revised  edicts ;  but  the  regent,  following  the  su2:gestion 
of  her  privy  council,  had  "determined  to  transmit  them 
first  to  the  king.  "  I  now  see  clearly,"  he  broke  out  with 
well-acted  vehemence,  "  that  all  the  advice  which  I  give 
is  distrusted.  The  king  requires  no  servants  whose 
loyalty  he  is  determined  to  doubt;  and  far  be  it  from  me 
to  thrust  my  services  upon  a  sovereign  who  is  unwilling 
to  receive  them.  Better,  therefore,  for  him  and  me  that 
I  withdraw  from  public  affairs."  Count  Horn  expressed 
himself  nearly  to  the  same  effect.  Egmont  requested 
permission  to  visit  the  baths  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the  use 
of  which  had  been  prescribed  to  him  by  his  physician, 
although  (as  it  is  stated  in  his  accusation)  he  appeared 
health  itself.  The  regent,  terrified  at  the  consequences 
which  must  inevitably  follow  this  step,  spoke  sharply  to 
the  prince.  "If  neither  my  representations,  nor  the 
general  welfare  can  prevail  upon  you,  so  far  as  to  induce 
you  to  relinquish  this  intention,  let  me  advise  you  to  be 
more  careful,  at  least,  of  your  own  reputation.  Louis  of 
Nassau  is  your  brother;  he  and  Count  Brederode,  the 
heads  of  the  confederacy,  have  publicly  been  your  guests. 
The  petition  is  in  substance  identical  with  your  own 
representations  in  the  council  of  state.  If  you  now  sud- 
denly desert  the  cause  of  your  king  will  it  not  be  uni- 
versally said  that  you  favor  the  conspiracy  ?  "  We  do  not 
find  it  anywhere  stated  whether  the  prince  really  with- 
drew at  this  time  from  the  council  of  state  ;  at  all  events, 
if  he  did,  he  must  soon  have  altered  his  mind,  for  shortly 
after  he  appears  again  in  public  transactions.     Egmont 


170        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

allowed  himself  to  be  overcome  by  the  remonstrances  of 
the  regent ;  Horn  alone  actually  Avithdrevv  himself  to  one 
of  his  "estates,*  with  the  resolution  of  never  more  serving 
either  emperor  or  king.  Meanwhile  the  Gueux  had  dis- 
persed themselves  through  the  provinces,  and  spread 
everywhere  the  most  favorable  reports  of  their  success. 
According  to  tlieir  assertions,  religious  freedom  was 
finally  assiired ;  and  in  order  to  confirm  their  statements 
they  lielped  themselves,  where  the  truth  failed,  with 
falsehood.  For  example,  they  produced  a  forged  letter 
of  the  Knights  of  the  Fleece,  in  which  the  latter  were  made 
solemnly  to  declare  that  for  the  future  no  one  need  fear 
imprisonment,  or  banishment,  or  death  on  account  of 
religion,  unless  he  also  committed  a  political  crime  ;  and 
even  in  that  case  the  confederates  alone  were  to  be  his 
judges;  and  this  regulation  was  to  be  in  force  until  the 
king,  with  the  consent  and  advice  of  the  states  of  the 
realm,  should  otherwise  dispose.  Earnestly  as  the  knights 
applied  themselves  upon  the  first  information  of  the 
fraud  to  rescue  the  nation  from  their  delusion,  still  it 
had  already  in  this  short  interval  done  good  service 
to  the  faction.  If  there  are  truths  whose  effect  is  limited 
to  a  single  instant,  then  inventions  which  last  so  long  can 
easily  assume  their  place.  Besides,  the  report,  however 
false,  was  calculated  both  to  awaken  distrust  between  the 
regent  and  the  knights,  and  to  support  the  courage  of  the 
Protestants  by  fresh  hopes,  while  it  also  furnished  those 
who  were  meditating  innovation  an  appearance  of  right, 
Avhich,  however  unsubstantial  they  themselves  knew  it  to 
be,  served  as  a  colorable  pretext  for  their  proceedings. 
Quickly  as  this  delusion  was  dispelled,  still,  in  the  short 
space  of  time  that  it  obtained  belief,  it  had  occasioned  so 
many  extravagances,  had  introduced  so  much  irregularity 
and  license,  that  a  return  to  the  former  state  of  things 
became  impossible,  and  continuance  in  the  course  already 
commenced  was  rendered  necessary  as  well  by  habit  as 
by  desj)air.  On  the  very  first  news  of  this  happy  result 
tlie  fugitive  Protestants  had  returned  to  their  homes, 
which  they  had  so  unwillingly  abandoned  ;  those  who  had 
been  in  concealrtient  came  forth  from  their  hiding-places ; 

•  Where  he  remained  three  mouths  inactiye. 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        171 

those  who  had  hitherto  pair!  homage  to  the  new  religion 
in  their  liearts  alone,  emboldened  by  these  pretended  acts 
of  toleration,  now  gave  in  their  adhesion  to  it  publicly 
and  decidedly.  The  name  of  the  "  Gueux  "  Avas  extolled 
in  all  the  provinces ;  they  Avere  called  the  pillars  of  relig- 
ion and  liberty ;  their  party  increased  daily,  and  many 
of  the  mei'chants  began  to  wear  their  insignia.  The 
latter  made  an  alteration  in  the  "  Gueux  "  penny,  by 
introducing  two  travellers'  staffs,  laid  crosswise,  to  inti- 
mate that  they  stood  prepared  and  ready  at  any  instant 
to  forsake  house  and  hearth  for  the  sake  of  religion. 
The  Gueux  league,  in  short,  had  now  given  to  things  an 
entirely  different  form.  The  murmurs  of  the  people, 
liitherto  impotent  and  despised,  as  being  the  cries  of 
individuals,  had,  now  that  they  were  concentrated,  be- 
come formidable ;  and  had  gained  power,  direction,  and 
firmness  through  union.  Every  one  who  was  rebelliously 
disposed  now  looked  on  himself  as  the  member  of  a 
venerable  and  powerful  body,  and  believed  that  by  carry- 
ing his  own  complaints  to  the  general  stock  of  discontent 
he  secured  the  free  expression  of  them.  To  be  called  an 
important  acquisition  to  the  league  flattei'ed  the  vain ;  to 
be  lost,  unnoticed,  and  irresponsible  in  the  crowd  was 
an  inducement  to  the  timid.  The  face  which  the  con- 
federacy showed  to  the  nation  was  very  unlike  that 
which  it  had  turned  to  the  court.  But  had  its  objects 
been  the  purest,  had  it  really  been  as  well  disposed 
towards  the  throne  as  it  wished  to  appear,  still  the  multi- 
tude would  have  regarded  only  what  was  illegal  in  its 
proceedings,  and  upon  them  its  better  intentions  would 
have  been  entirely  lost. 

PUBLIC    PREACHING. 

No  moment  could  be  more  favorable  to  the  Huguenots 
and  the  German  Protestants  than  the  present  to  seek 
a  market  for  their  dangerous  commodity  in  the  Neth- 
erlands. Accordingly,  every  considerable  town  now 
swarmed  with  suspicious  arrivals,  masked  spies,  and  the 
apostles  of  every  description  of  heresy.  Of  the  religious 
parties,  which  had  sprung  up  by  secession  from  the  ruling 


172       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

church,  three  chiefly  had  made  considerable  progress  in 
the   provinces.      Friesland   and   the    adjoining    districts 
were  overrun  by  the  Anabaptists,  who,  however,  as  the 
most    indigent,   without    organization    and   government, 
destitute  of   military  resources,  and  moreover  at  strife 
amongst  themselves,  awakened    the    least  apprehension. 
Of  far  more  importance  were  the  Calvanists,  who  pre- 
vailed in  the  southern  provinces,  and  above  all  in  Flanders, 
who  were  powerfully  supported  by  their  neighbors  the 
Huguenots,  the  republic  of  Geneva,  the  Swiss  Cantons, 
and  part  of  Germany,  and  whose  opinions,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  slight  difference,  were  also  held  by  the  throne 
in  England.     They  were  also  the  most  numerous  party, 
especially   among   the  merchants  and   common  citizens. 
The  Huguenots,  expelled  from  France,  had  been  the  chief 
disseminators  of  the  tenets  of  this  party.     The  Lutherans 
were  inferior  both  in  numbers  and  wealth,  but  derived 
weight  from  having  many  adherents  among  the  nobility. 
They  occupied,  for  the  most  part,  the  eastern  portion  of 
the  Netherlands,  which  borders  on  Germany,  and  were 
also   to   be   found    in   some  of  the  northern  territories. 
Some  of  the  most   powerful   princes   of  Germany  were 
their  allies;  and  the  religious  freedom  of  that  empire,  of 
which  by  the  Burgundian  treaty  the  Netherlands  formed 
an  integral  part,  was  claimed  by  them  with  some  appear- 
ance of" right.     These  three  religious  denominations  met 
together  in  Antwerp,  where  the  crowded  population  con- 
cealed them,   and    the   mingling  of   all  nations  favored 
]iV>erty.    They  had  nothing  in  common,  except  an  equally 
inextinguishable  hatred  of  popery,  of  tlie  Inquisition  in 
particular,  and  of  the  Spanish  government,  whose  instru- 
ment it  was  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  watched  each 
other  with  a  jealousy  which  kept  their  zeal  in  exercise, 
and  perverted  the  glowing  ardor  of  fanaticism  from  wax- 
ing dull. 

The  regent,  in  expectation  that  the  projected  "moder- 
ation "  would  be  sanctioned  by  the  king,  had,  in  the 
meantime,  to  gratify  the  Gueux,  recommended  the  gov- 
ernoi's  and  municipal  ofiioers  of  the  ]irovinces  to  be  as 
moderate  as  possible  in  their  proceedings  against  here- 
tics ;  instructions  which  were  eagerly  followed,   and  in- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        173 

terpreted  in  the  widest  sense  by  the  majority,  who  had 
hitherto  administered  the  painful  duty  of  punishment 
with  extreme  repugnance.  Most  of  the  chief  uiagistrates 
were  in  their  hearts  averse  to  the  Inquisition  and  the 
Spanisli  tyranny,  and  many  were  even  secretly  attached 
to  one  or  other  of  the  religious  parties  ;  even  the  others 
were  unwilling  to  inflict  punishment  on  their  countrymen 
to  gratify  then-  sworn  enemies,  the  Spaniards.  All,  there- 
fore, purposely  misunderstood  the  regent,  and  allowed 
the  Inquisition  and  the  edicts  to  fall  almost  entirely  into 
disuse.  This  forbearance  of  the  government,  combined 
with  the  brilliant  representations  of  the  Gueux,  lured 
from  their  obscurity  the  Protestants,  who,  however,  had 
now  grown  too  powerful  to  be  any  longer  concealed. 
Hitherto  they  had  contented  themselves  with  secret  as- 
semblies by  night ;  now  they  thought  themselves  numer- 
ous and  formidable  enough  to  venture  to  these  meetings 
openly  and  publicly.  This  license  commenced  some- 
where between  Oudenarde  and  Ghent,  and  soon  spread 
through  the  rest  of  Flanders.  A  certain  Hermann 
Strieker,  born  at  Overyssel,  formerly  a  monk,  a  daring 
enthusiast  of  able  mind,  imposing  figure,  and  ready 
tongue,  was  the  first  who  collected  the  people  for  a 
sermon  in  the  open  air.  The  novelty  of  the  thing  gath- 
ered together  a  crowd  of  about  seven  thousand  persons. 
A  magistrate  of  the  neighborhood,  more  courageous 
than  wise,  rushed  amongst  the  crowd  with  liis  drawn 
sword,  and  attempted  to  seize  the  preacher,  but  was  so 
roughly  handled  by  the  multitude,  who  for  want  of  other 
weapons  took  up  stones  and  felled  him  to  the  ground, 
that  he  was  glad  to  beg  for  his  life.* 

This  success  of  the  first  attempt  inspired  courage  for  a 
second.  In  the  vicinity  of  Aalst  they  assembled  again 
in  still  greater  numbers  ;  but  on  this  occasion  they  pro- 
vided themselves  with  rapiers,  firearms,  and  halberds, 
placed  sentries  at  all  the  approaches,  which  they  also 
barricaded  with  carts  and  carriages.     All  passers-by  were 

*  The  unheard-of  foolhardiness  of  a  single  man  rushing  into  the  midst  of 
a  fanatical  crowd  of  seven  thousand  people  to  seize  before  their  eyes  one 
whom  they  adored,  proves,  more  than  all  that  can  he  said  on  the  subject,  the 
insolent  contempt  with  which  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  time  looked  down 
upon  the  so-called  heretics  as  an  inferior  i-ace  of  beings. 


174       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

oblioed,  whether  willing  or  otherwise,  to  take  part  in  the 
religious  service,  and  to  enforce  this  object  lookout  par- 
ties°\vere  posted  at  certain  distances  round  the  place  of 
nieetino-.  At  the  entrance  booksellers  stationed  them- 
selves offerino-  for  sale  Protestant  catechisms,  religious 
tracts,  and  pasquinades  on  the  bishops.  The  preacher, 
Hermann  Strieker,  held  forth  from  a  pulpit  which  was 
liastily  constructed  for  the  occasion  out  of  carts  and 
trunks  of  trees.  A  canvas  awning  drawn  over  it  pro- 
tected him  from  the  sun  and  the  rain;  the  preacher's 
position  was  in  the  quarter  of  the  wind  that  the  people 
mi<'ht  not  lose  any  part  of  his  sermon,  which  consisted 
principally  of  revilings  against  popery.  Here  the  sacra- 
ments were  administered  after  the  Calvinistic  fashion, 
and  water  was  procured  from  the  nearest  river  to  baptize 
infants  without  further  ceremony,  after  the  practice,  it 
was  pretended,  of  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity. 
Couples  were  also  united  in  wedlock,  and  the  marriage 
ties  dissolved  between  others.  To  be  present  at  this 
meeting  half  the  population  of  Ghent  had  left  its  gates  ; 
their  example  was  soon  followed  in  other  parts,  and  ere 
long  spread  over  the  whole  of  East  Flanders.  In  like 
manner  Peter  Dathen,  another  renegade  monk,  from 
Poperingen,  stirred  up  West  Flanders ;  as  many  as  fifteen 
thousand  persons  at  a  time  attended  his  preaching  from  the 
villages  and  hamlets  ;  their  number  made  them  bold,  and 
they  broke  into  the  prisons,  where  some  Anabaptists  were 
reserved  for  martyrdom.  In  Tournay  the  Protestants 
Avere  excited  to  a  similar  pitch  of  daring  by  Ambrosius 
Ville,  a  French  Calvinist.  They  demanded  the  release  of 
the  prisoners  of  their  sect,  and  repeatedly  threatened 
if  their  demands  were  not  complied  with  to  deliver  up 
the  town  to  the  French.  It  was  entirely  destitute  of  a 
garrison,  for  the  commandant,  from  fear  of  treason,  had 
withdrawn  it  into  the  castle,  and  the  soldiers,  moreover, 
refused  to  act  against  their  fellow-citizens.  The  secta- 
rians carried  their  audacity  to  such  great  lengths  as  to 
require  one  of  the  churches  within  the  town  to  be  as- 
signed to  them  ;  and  when  this  was  refused  they  entered 
into  a  league  witli  Valenciennes  and  Antwerp  to  obtain 
a  legal  recognition  of  their  worship,  after  the  example  of 


s,f!i<i>-'>' 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHEKLANDS.        175 

the  other  towns,  by  open  force.    These  three  towns  main- 
tained a  close  connection  with  each  otlier,  and  the  Prot- 
estant party  was  equally  powerful  in  all.     While,  how- 
ever, no  one  would  venture  singly  to  commence  the  dis- 
turbance, they  agreed  simultaneously  to  make  a  beginning 
with  public  2^1'eaching.     Brederode's   appearance  in  Ant- 
werp at  last  gave  them  courage.     Six  thousand  persons, 
men  and  women,  poured  forth  from  the  town  on  an  ap- 
pointed day,  on  which  the  same  thing  happened  in  Tour- 
nay  and  Valenciennes.     The  place  of  meeting  was  closed 
in  with  a  line  of  vehicles,  firmly  fastened  together,  and 
behind  them   armed  men  were   secretly  posted,  witli   a 
view  to  i^rotect  the  service  from  any  surprise.     Of  the 
preachers,  most  of  whom  were  men  of  the  very  lowest 
class  —  some  were   Germans,  some  were  Huguenots  — 
and  spoke  in  the  Walloon  dialect ;  some  even  of  the  citi- 
zens felt  themselves  called  upon  to  take  a  part  in  this 
sacred  work,  now  that  no  fears  of  the  officers  of  justice 
alarmed  them.     Many  were  drawn  to  the  spot  by  mere 
curiosity  to  hear  what  kind  of  new  and  unheard-of  doc- 
trines these  foreign  teachers,  whose  arrival  liad  caused  so 
much  talk,  would  set  forth.    Others  were  attracted  by  the 
melody  of  the  psalms,  which  were  sung  in  a  French  ver- 
sion, after  the  custom  in  Geneva.     A  great  number  came 
to  hear  these  sermons   as  so  many   amusing  comedies  : 
such  was  the  buffoonery  with  which  the  pope,  the  fathers 
of    the   ecclesiastical  council    of   Trent,   purgatory,    and 
other  dogmas  of  the  ruling  church  were  abused  in  them. 
And,  in  fact,  the  more  extravagant  was  this  abuse  and  rid- 
icule the  more  it  tickled  the  ears  of  the  lower  orders ; 
and  a  universal   clapping  of  hands,  as  in  a  theatre,  re- 
warded the  speaker  who   had   surpassed    others  in   the 
wildness  of  his  jokes  and  denunciations.     But  the  ridi- 
cule which  was  thus  cast  upon  the  ruling  church  Avas, 
nevertheless,  not  entirely  lost  on  the  minds  of  the  hearers, 
as  neither  were  the  few  grains  of  truth  or  reason  which 
occasionally  slipped  in  among  it ;  and  many  a  one,  who 
had  sought  from  these  sermons  anything  but  conviction, 
unconsciously  carried  away  a  little  also  of  it. 

These   assemblies   were   several   times    repeated,    and 
each  day  augmented  the  boldness  of  the  sectarians ;  till 


176        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

at  last  they  even  ventured,  after  concluding  the  service, 
to  conduct  their  preachers  home   in  triunipli,  with    an 
escort  of  armed  horsemen,  and  ostentatiously  to  brave 
the  law.     The  town  council  sent  express  after  express  to 
the  duchess,  entreating  her  to  visit  them  in  person,  and 
if  possible  to  reside  for  a  short  time  in  Antwerp,  as  the 
only  expedient  to  curb  the  arrogance  of  the  populace ; 
and   assuring   her   that    the    most    eminent   merchants, 
afraid  of  being  plundered,  were  already  preparing  to  quit 
it.     Fear  of  staking  the  royal  dignity  on  so  hazardous  a 
stroke  of    policy  forbade  her   compliance;    but  she  de- 
spatched in  her  stead  Count  Megen,  in  order  to  treat  with 
the  magistrate  for  the  introduction   of  a  garrison.     The 
rebellio'iis  mob,  who  quickly  got  an  inkling  of  the  object 
of  his  visit,  gathered  around  him  with  tumultuous  cries, 
shouting,  "  He  was  known  to  them  as  a  sworn  enemy  of 
the  Gue'ux;  that  it  was  notorious  he  was  bringing  upon 
them  prisons  and  the  Inquisition,  and   that  he  should 
leave  the  town  instantly."     Nor  was  the  tumult  quieted 
till  Megen  was  beyond  the  gates.     The  Calvinists  now 
handed  in  to  the  magistrate  a  memorial,  in  which  they 
showed  that  their  great  numbei-s  made  it  impossible  for 
them  henceforward  to  assemble  in  secrecy,  and  requested 
a  separate  place  of  worship  to  be  allowed  them  inside 
the  town.     The  town  council  renewed  its  entreaties  to 
the  duchess  to  assist,  by  her  personal  presence,  their  per- 
plexities, or  at  least  to  send  to  them  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
as  the  only  person  for  whom  the  people  still  had  any 
respect,  and,  moreover,  as  specially  bound  to  the  town  of 
Antwerp   by  his   hereditary   title   of   its   burgrave.     In 
order  to  escape  the  greater  evil  she  was  compelled  to 
consent  to  the  second  demand,  however  much   against 
her  inclination  to  entrust  Antwerp  to  the  prince.     After 
allowing  himself  to  be  long  and  fruitlessly  entreated,  for 
he  had  all  at  once  resolved  to  take  no  further  share  in 
public  affairs,  he  yielded  at  last  to  the  earnest  persuasions 
of  tlie  regent  and  the  boisterous  wishes  of  the  people. 
Brederode,  with   a  numei-ous  retinue,  came  half  a  mile 
out  of  the  town  to  meet  him,  and  both  parties  saluted 
each    other  with    a   discharge  of   pistols.     Antwerp  ap- 
peared to  have  poured  out  all  her  inhabitants  to  welcome 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       177 

her  deliverer.     The  high  road  swarmed  with  multitudes; 
the  roofs  were  taken  off  the  houses  in  order  that  they 
might   accommodate   more    spectators;    behind    fences, 
froTn  churchyard  walls,   even  out  of  graves  started   up 
men.    The  attachment  of  the  people  to  the  prince  showed 
itself   in   childish    effusions.     "Long  live  theGueux!" 
was  the  shout  with  which  young  and  old  received  him. 
"Behold,"  cried  others,  "the  man  who  shall  give  us  lib- 
erty."    "  He  brings  us,"  cried  the  Lutherans,  "  the  Con- 
fession  of  Augsburg!"     "We   don't   want   the   Gueux 
now  !  "  exclaimed  others  ;  "  we  have  no  more  need  of  the 
troublesome  journey  to  Brussels.     He  alone  is  everything 
to  us ! "     Those  who  knew  not  what  to  say  vented  their 
extravagant    joy    in    psalms,   which    they   vociferously 
chanted  as  they  moved  along.     He,  however,  maintained 
his  gravity,  beckoned  for  silence,  and  at  last,  when  no 
one  would  listen  to  him,  exclaimed  with  indignation,  half 
real  and  half  affected,  "By  God,  they  ought  to  consider 
Avhat  they  did,  or  they  would  one  day  repent  what  they 
had  now  done."     The  shouting  increased  even  as  he  rode 
into  the  town.     The  first  conference  of  the  prince  with 
the  heads  of  the  different  religious  sects,  whom  he  sent 
for  and  separately  interrogated,  presently  convinced  him 
that  the  chief  source  of  the  evil  w^as  the  mutual  distrust 
of  the  several  parties,  and  the  suspicions  which  the  citi- 
zens entertained  of  the  designs  of  the  government,  and 
that  therefore  it  must  be  his  first  business  to  restore  con- 
fidence among  them  all.     First  of  all  he  attempted,  both 
by  persuasion  and  artifice,  to  induce  the  Calvinists,  as 
the  most  numerous  body,  to  lay  down  their  weapons,  and 
in  this  he  at  last,  with  much  labor,  succeeded.     "When, 
hoM'ever,  some  wagons  were  soon  afterwards  seen  laden 
with  ammunition  in  Malines,  and  the  high  bailiff  of  Bra- 
bant showed  himself  frequently  in  the  neighborhood^  of 
Antwerp   with  an   armed   force,  the   Calvinists,  fearing 
hostile  interruption  of  their  religious  worship,  besouglit 
the  prince  to  allot  them  a  place  within  the  walls  for  their 
sermons,  which  should  be  secure  from  a  surprise.     He  suc- 
ceeded once  more  in  pacifying  them,  and  his  presence 
fortunately  prevented  an  outbreak  on  the  Assumption  of 
the  Virgin,  which,  as  usual,  had  drawn  a  crowd  to  the 


178       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

town,  and  from  whose  sentiments  there  was  bnt  too  much 
reason  for  alarm.  The  image  of  the  Virgin  was,  with 
the  usual  pomp,  carried  round  the  town  without  inter- 
ruption ;  a  few  words  of  abuse,  and  a  suppressed  mur- 
mur about  idolatry,  was  all  that  the  disaj^proving  multi- 
tudes indulged  in  against  the  procession. 

15fi6.  While  the  regent  received  from  one  province 
after  another  the  most -melancholy  accounts  of  the  ex- 
cesses of  the  Protestants,  and  while  she  trembled  for 
Antwerp,  which  she  was  compelled  to  leave  in  the  dan- 
o-erous  hands  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  a  new  terror 
assailed  her  from  another  quarter.  Upon  the  first 
authentic  tidings  of  the  public  preaching  she  immediately 
called  upon  the  league  to  fulfil  its  promises  and  to  assist 
her  in  restoring  order.  Count  Brederode  used  this  pre- 
text to  summon  a  general  meeting  of  the  whole  league, 
for  Avhich  he  could  not  have  selected  a  more  dangerous 
moment  than  the  present.  So  ostentatious  a  display  of 
the  strength  of  the  league,  whose  existence  and  protection 
had  alone  encouraged  the  Protestant  mob  to  go  the  length 
it  had  already  gone,  would  now  raise  the  confidence  of 
the  sectarians,  while  in  the  same  degree  it  depressed  the 
courage  of  the  regent.  The  convention  took  place  in  the 
town  of  Liege  St.  Truyen,  into  which  Brederode  and 
Louis  of  Nassau  had  thrown  themselves  at  the  head 
of  two  thousand  confederates.  As  the  long  delay  of  the 
royal  answer  from  Madrid  seemed  to  presage  no  good 
from  that  quarter,  they  considered  it  advisable  in  any  case 
to  extort  from  the  regent  a  letter  of  indemnity  for  their 
persons. 

Those  among  them  who  were  conscious  of  a  disloyal 
sympathy  with  the  Protestant  mob  looked  on  its  licen- 
tiousness as  a  favorable  circumstance  for  the  league  ;  the 
apparent  success  of  those  to  M'hose  degrading  fellowship 
they  had  deigned  to  stoop  led  them  to  alter  their  tone ; 
their  former  laudable  zeal  began  to  degenerate  into  inso- 
lence and  defiance.  IMany  thought  that  they  ought  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  general  confusion  and  the  perplexity 
of  the  duchess  to  assume  a  bolder  tone  and  heap  demand 
upon  demand.  The  Roman  Catholic  members  of  the 
league,  among   whom  many  were   in   their    hearts  still 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       179 

strongly  inclined  to  the  royal  cause,  and  who  had  been 
drawn  into  a  connection  with  the  league  by  occasion  and 
example,  rather  than  from  feeling  and  conviction,  now 
heard  to  their  astonishment  projiositions  for  establishing 
universal  freedom  of  religion,  and  were  not  a  little 
shocked  to  discover  in  how  perilous  an  enterprise  they 
had  hastily  implicated  themselves.  On  this  discovery  the 
young  Count  Mansfeld  withdrew  immediately  from  it, 
and  internal  dissensions  already  began  to  undermine  the 
work  of  precipitation  and  haste,  and  imperceptibly  to 
loosen  the  joints  of  the  league. 

Count  Egmont  and  William  of  Orange  were  empowered 
by  the  regent  to  treat  with  the  confederates.  Twelve  of 
the  latter,  among  whom  were  Louis  of  Nassau,  Brederode, 
and  Kuilemberg,  conferred  with  them  in  Duffle,  a  village 
near  Malines.  "  Wherefore  this  new  step  ?  "  demanded 
the  regent  by  the  mouth  of  these  two  noblemen.  "  I  was 
required  to  despatch  ambassadors  to  Spain ;  and  I  sent 
them.  The  edicts  and  the  Inquisition  were  complained 
of  as  too  rigorous ;  I  have  rendered  both  more  lenient. 
A  general  assembly  of  the  states  of  the  realm  was  ])ro- 
posed  ;  I  have  submitted  this  request  to  the  king  because 
I  could  not  grant  it  from  ray  own  authority.  What, 
then,  have  I  unwittingly  either  omitted  or  done  tliat 
should  render  necessary  this  assembling  in  St.  Truyen  ? 
Is  it  perhaps  fear  of  the  king's  anger  and  of  its  conse- 
quences that  disturbs  the  confederates  ?  The  provoca- 
tion certainly  is  great,  but  his  mercy  is  even  greater. 
Where  now  is  the  pi-omise  of  the  league  to  excite  no 
disturbances  amongst  the  people?  Where  those  high- 
sounding  professions  that  they  were  ready  to  die  at  my 
feet  rather  than  offend  against  any  of  the  prerogatives  of 
the  crown  ?  The  innovators  already  venture  on  things 
which  border  closely  on  rebellion,  and  threaten  the  state 
with  destruction  ;  and  it  is  to  the  league  that  they  appeal. 
If  it  continues  silently  to  tolerate  this  it  will  justly  bring 
on  itself  the  charge  of  participating  in  the  guilt  of  their 
offences  ;  if  it  is  honestly  disposed  towards  the  sovereign 
it  cannot  remain  longer  inactive  in  this  licentiousness  of 
the  mob.  But,  in  truth,  does  it  not  itself  outstrip  the 
insane  population  by  its  dangerous  examjile,  concluding, 


180       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

as  it  is  known  to  do,  alliances  with  the  enemies  of  the 
country,  and  confirming  the  evil  report  of  its  designs  by 
the  present  illegal  meeting  ?  " 

Against  these  reproaches  the  league  formally  justified 
itsel?  in  a  memorial  which  it  deputed  three  of  its  mem- 
bers to  deliver  to  the  council  of  state  at  Brussels. 

"  All,"  it  commenced,  "  that  your  highness  has  done  in 
respect  to  our  petition  we  have  felt  with  the  most  lively 
gratitude  ;  and  we  cannot  complain  of  any  new  measure, 
subsequently  adopted,  inconsistent  with  your  promise; 
but  we  cannot  help  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
orders  of  your  highness  are  by  the  judicial  courts,  at 
least,  very  little  regarded  ;  for  we  are  continually  hear- 

ino- and  our  own  eyes  attest  to  the  truth  of  the  report 

— "that  in  all  quarters  our  fellow-citizens  are  in  spite  of 
the  orders  of  your  highness  still  mercilessly  dragged 
before  the  courts  of  justice  and  condemned  to  death  for 
reli^-ion.  What  the  league  engaged  on  its  part  to  do  it 
has^honestly  fulfilled ;  it  has,  too,  to  the  utmost  of  its 
power  endeavored  to  prevent  the  public  preachings  ;  but 
it  certainlv  is  no  Avonder  if  the  long  delay  of  an  answer 
from  Madrid  fills  the  mind  of  the  people  with  distrust, 
and  if  the  disappointed  hopes  of  a  general  assembly  of 
the  states  disposes  them  to  put  little  "faith  in  any  further 
assurances.  The  league  has  never  allied,  nor  ever  felt 
any  temptation  to  ally,  itself  with  the  enemies  of  the 
country.  If  the  arms  of  France  were  to  appear  in  the 
provinces  we,  the  confederates,  Avould  be  the  first  to 
mount  and  drive  tliem  back  again.  The  league,  however, 
desires  to  be  candid  with  your  highness.  We  thought 
we  read  marks  of  displeasure  in  your  countenance  ;  we 
see  men  in  exclusive  possession  of  your  faA^or  who  are 
notorious  for  their  hatred  against  us.  We  daily  hear 
that  persons  are  warned  from  associating  with  us,  as  with 
those  infected  with  the  plague,  while  we  are  denounced 
with  the  arrival  of  the  king  as  with  the  opening  of  a  day 
of  judgment  —  wliat  is  more  natural  than  that  such  dis- 
trust shown  to  us  sliould  at  last  rouse  our  own  ?  That 
the  attempt  to  blacken  our  league  with  the  reproach  of 
treason,  that  tlie  warlike  preparations  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  and  of  otlier  princes,  Avhich,  according  to  common 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       181 

report,  are  directed  against  ourselves ;  the  negotiations 
of  the  king  with  the  French  court  to  obtain  a  passage 
through  that  kingdom  for  a  Spanish  army,  which  is 
destined,  it  is  said,  for  the  Netherlands  —  what  wonder 
if  these  and  similar  occurrences  should  have  stimulated 
us  to  think  in  time  of  the  means  of  self-defence,  and  to 
strengthen  ourselves  by  an  alliance  with  our  friends 
beyond  the  frontier  ?  On  a  general,  uncertain,  and  vague 
rumor  we  are  accused  of  a  share  in  this  licentiousness  of 
the  Protestant  mob  ;  but  who  is  safe  from  general  rumor  ? 
True  it  is,  certainly,  tliat  of  our  numbers  some  are  Prot- 
estants, to  whom  religious  toleration  would  be  a  wel- 
come boon  ;  but  even  they  have  never  forgotten  what 
tliey  owe  to  their  sovereign.  It  is  not  fear  of  the  king's 
anger  which  instigated  us  to  hold  this  assembly.  Tlie 
king  is  good,  and  we  still  hope  that  he  is  also  just.  It 
cannot,  therefore,  be  pardon  that  we  seek  from  him,  and 
just  as  little  can  it  be  oblivion  that  we  solicit  for  our 
actions,  which  are  far  from  being  the  least  considerable 
of  the  services  we  have  at  different  times  rendered  liis 
majesty.  Again,  it  is  true,  that  the  delegates  of  the 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists  are  with  us  in  St.  Truyen ; 
nay,  more,  they  have  delivered  to  us  a  petition  wliich, 
annexed  to  this  memorial,  we  here  present  to  your  high- 
ness. In  it  they  offer  to  go  unarmed  to  their  preachings 
if  the  league  will  tender  its  security  to  them,  and  be 
willing  to  engage  for  a  general  meeting  of  the  states. 
We  have  thouglit  it  incumbent  upon  us  to  communicate 
both  these  matters  to  yon,  for  our  guarantee  can  have  no 
force  unless  it  is  at  the  same  time  confirmed  by  your 
higliness  and  some  of  your  principal  counsellors.  Among 
these  no  one  can  be  so  well  acquainted  with  the  circum- 
stances of  our  cause,  or  be  so  upright  in  intention  towards 
us,  as  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  Counts  Horn  and  Egmont. 
We  gladly  accept  these  three  as  meditators  if  the  neces- 
sary powers  are  given  to  them,  and  assurance  is  afforded 
us  that  no  troops  will  be  enlisted  without  their  knowl- 
edge. This  guarantee,  liowever,  we  only  require  for  a 
given  period,  before  the  expiration  of  which  it  Avill  rest 
with  the  king  whether  he  will  cancel  or  confirm  it  for 
the  future.     If  the  first  should  be  his  will  it  will  then  be 


182       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

but  fair  that  time  should  be  allowed  us  to  place  our  per- 
sons and  our  property  in  security  ;  for  this  three  weeks 
will  be  sufficient.  Finally,  and  in  conclusion,  we  on  our 
part  also  pledge  ourselves  to  undertake  nothing  new 
without  the  concurrence  of  those  three  persons,  our  medi- 
ators." 

The  league  would  not  have  ventured  to  hold  such  bold 
language  if  it  had  not  reckoned  on  powerful  sup])ort  and 
protection  ;  but  the  regent  was  as  little  in  a  condition  to 
concede  their  demands  as  she  was  incapable  of  vigor- 
ously opposing  them.  Deserted  in  Brussels  by  most  of 
her  counsellors  of  state,  who  had  either  departed  to  their 
provinces,  or  under  some  pretext  or  other  had  altogether 
Avithdrawn  from  jjublic  affairs ;  destitute  as  well  of  ad- 
visers as  of  money  (the  latter  want  had  compelled  her,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  appeal  to  the  liberality  of  the  clergy  ; 
Avhen  this  proved  insufficient,  to  have  recourse  to  a  lot- 
tery), dependent  on  orders  from  Spain,  which  Avere  ever 
expected  and  never  received,  she  was  at  last  reduced  to 
the  degrading  expedient  of  entering  into  a  negotiation 
with  the  confederates  in  St.  Truyen,  that  they  should 
Avait  twenty-four  days  longer  for  the  king's  resolution 
before  they  took  any  fui'ther  steps.  It  was  certainly 
surprising  that  the  king  still  continued  to  delay  a  deci- 
sive answer  to  the  petition,  although  it  Avas  universally 
known  that  he  had  ansAvered  letters  of  a  much  later  date, 
and  that  the  regent  eaimestly  importuned  him  on  this 
head.  She  had  also,  on  the  commencement  of  the  public 
preaching,  imnaediately  despatched  the  Marquis  of  Ber- 
gen after  the  Baron  of  Montigny,  who,  as  an  eye-Avitness 
of  these  new  occurrences,  could  confirm  her  written 
statements,  to  move  the  king  to  an  earlier  decision. 

15G6.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  Flemish  ambassador, 
Florence  of  Montigny,  had  arrived  in  Madrid,  Avhere  he 
was  received  with  a  great  show  of  consideration.  His 
instructions  Avere  to  press  for  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  the  mitigation  of  the  edicts;  the  augmentation 
of  the  council  of  state,  and  the  incorporation  Avith  it  of 
the  two  other  councils ;  the  calling  of  a  general  assembly 
of  the  states,  and,  lastly,  to  urge  the  solicitations  of  the 
regent  for  a  personal  visit  from  the  king.     As  the  latter. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        183 

however,  was  only  desirous  of  gaining  time,  Montigny 
■was  put  off  with  fair  words  until  the  arrival  of  his  coad- 
jutor, without  whom  the  king  was  not  willing  to  come  to 
any  final  determination.  In  the  meantime,  Montigny  had 
every  day  and  at  any  hour  that  he  desired,  an  audience 
with  the  king,  who  also  commanded  that  on  all  occasions 
the  despatches  of  the  duchess  and  the  answers  to  them 
should  be  communicated  to  himself.  He  was,  too,  fre- 
quently admitted  to  the  council  for  Belgian  affairs,  where 
he  never  omitted  to  call  the  king's  attention  to  the 
necessity  of  a  general  assembly  of  the  states,  as  being  the 
only  means  of  successfully  meeting  the  troubles  which  had 
arisen,  and  as  likely  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  any 
other  measure.  He  moreover  impressed  upon  him  that 
a  general  and  unreserved  indemnity  for  the  past  would 
alone  eradicate  the  distrust,  which  was  the  source  of  all 
existing  complaints,  and  Avould  always  counteract  the 
good  effects  of  every  measure,  however  Avell  advised. 
He  ventured,  from  a  thorough  acquaintance  Avith  circum- 
stances and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  character  of  his 
countrymen,  to  pledge  himself  to  the  king  for  their 
inviolable  loyalty,  as  soon  as  they  should  be  convinced  of 
the  honesty  of  his  intentions  by  the  straightforwardness 
of  his  proceedings ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  he  assured  him 
that  there  would  be  no  hopes  of  it  as  long  as  they  Avere 
not  relieved  of  the  fear  of  being  made  the  victims  of  the 
oppression,  and  sacrificed  to  the  envy  of  the  Spanish 
nobles.  At  last  Montigny's  coadjutor  made  his  appear- 
ance, and  the  objects  of  their  embassy  were  made  the 
subject  of  repeated  deliberations. 

1566.  Tlie  king  was  at  that  time  at  his  palace  at  Se- 
govia, where  also  he  assembled  his  state  council.  The 
members  were :  the  Duke  of  Alva ;  Don  Gomez  de 
Figueroa;  the  Count  of  Feria;  Don  Antonio  of  Toledo, 
Grand  Commander  of  St.  John ;  Don  John  Manriquoz  of 
Lara,  Lord  Steward  to  the  Queen  ;  Kuy  Gomez,  Prince 
of  Eboli  and  Count  of  Melito;  Louis  of  Quixada,  Master 
of  the  Horse  to  the  Prince;  Charles  Tyssenacque,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  for  the  Netherlands ;  Hopper,  State 
Counsellor  and  Keeper  of  the  Seal ;  and  State  Counsellor 
Corteville.     The  sitting  of  the  council  was  protracted  for 


184       REVOLT  OF  THE  KETHEKLANDS. 

several  days;  both  ambassadors  were  in  attendance,  but 
the  king  was  not  himself  present.     Here,  then,  the  con- 
duct  of   the  Belgian  nobles  was  examined   by  Spanish 
eyes  ;  step  by  step  it  was  traced  back  to  the  most  distant 
source;  circumstances  were  brought  into  relation  Avith 
others  which,  in  reality,  never  had  any  connection  ;  and 
what  had  been  the  offspring  of  the  moment  was  made 
out  to  be  a  well-matured  and  far-sighted  plan.     All  the 
different  transactions  and  attempts  of  the  nobles  which 
had   been  governed  solely  by  chance,  and   to  which   the 
natural  order  of  events  alone  assigned  their  particular 
shape   and    succession,  were   said  to  be  the  result  of   a 
preconcerted  scheme  for  introducing  universal  liberty  in 
religion,  and  for  placing  all  the  power  of  the  state  in  the 
hands  of  the  nobles.     The  first  step  to  this  end  was,  it 
was  said,  the  violent  expulsion  of  the  minister  Granvella, 
against  whom  nothing  could  be  charged,  except  that  he 
was  in  possession  of  an  authority  which  they  preferred 
to  exercise  themselves.      The  second   step  was  sending 
Count  Egmont  to   Spain    to  urge  the  abolition  of   the 
Inquisition  and  the  mitigation  of  the  penal  statutes,  and 
to  prevail  on  the  king  to  consent  to  an  augmentation  of 
the   council  of   state.     As,  however,  this    could   not   be 
surreptitiously  obtained  in  so  quiet  a  manner,  the  attempt 
Avas  made  to  extort  it  from  the  court  by  a  third  and  more 
daring  step  —  by  a  formal   conspiracy,  the  league  of  the 
Gueux.     The  fourth  step  to  the  same  end  was  the  present 
embassy,  Avhich  at  length  boldly  cast  aside  the  mask,  and 
by  the  insane  proposals  Avhich  they  were  not  ashamed  to 
niake  to  their  king,  clearly  brought  to  liglit  the  object  to 
Avhieh  all  the  preceding  steps   had   tended.      Could  the 
abolition  of  the  Inquisition,  tliey  exclaimed,  lead  to  any- 
thing less  than  a  complete  freedom  of  belief?    Would 
not  the  guiding  helm  of  conscience  be  lost  Avith  it?     Did 
not  the  proposed  "moderation"  introduce   an  absolute 
impunity  for  all  heresies?      What   was   the   project  of 
augmenting  the  council  of  state  and  of  supi)ressing  the 
two  other  councils  but   a  complete  remodelling  of   the 
government  of  the  country  in  favor  of  the  nobles? — a 
general  constitution  for  all  the  provinces  of  the  Nether- 
lands?   Again,  what  Avas  this  compact  of  the  ecclesiastics 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        185 

in  their  public  preachings  but  a  third  conspiracy,  entered 
into  with  the  very  same  objects  which  tlie  league  of  tlie 
nobles  in  the  council  of  state  and  that  of  the  Gueux 
had  failed   to  effect? 

However,  it  was  confessed   that  whatever  might  be  the 
source  of  the  evil   it  was  not  on  that  account  the  less  im- 
portant and  imuiinent.     The  immediate  personal  presence 
of  the  king  in  Brussels  was,  indubitably,  the  most  effica- 
cious means  speedily  and   tlioroughly  to  remedy  it.     As, 
liowever,  it  was  already  so  late  in  the  year,  and  the  prep- 
arations alone  for   the  journey  would  occupy  the  short 
time  which  was  to  elapse  before  the  winter  set  in ;  as  the 
stormy  season  of  the   year,  as   well  as   the  danger  from 
French  and  English  ships,  which  rendered  the  sea  unsafe, 
did  not  allow  of  the   king's    taking  the  northern  route, 
which  was  the  shorter  of  the    two ;  as  the  rebels  them- 
selves meanwhile  might  become   possessed  of  the  island 
of  Walcheren,  and  oppose  the  landing  of  the  king ;  .for 
all  these  reasons,  the  joui'ney  was  not  to  be  thought  of 
before  the  spring,  and  in   absence  of  the  only  complete 
remedy  it  was  necessary  to  rest  satisfied  with  a  partial 
expedient.     The  council,  therefore,  agreed  to  propose  to 
the  kin^,  in  the  first  place,  that  he  should  recall  the  papal 
Inquisition  from  the  provinces  and  rest  satisfied  with  that 
of  the  bishops  ;  in  the  second  place,  tliat  a  new  plan  for 
the  mitigation  of  the  edicts  should  be  projected,  by  which 
the  honor  of  religion   and   of   the  king  would  be  better 
preserved  than  it  had  been  in   the  transmitted  "  modera- 
tion ; "  thirdly,  that  in  order  to  reassure  the  minds  of  the 
people,  and  to  leave  no   means  untried,  the  king  should 
impart  to  the  regent  full  powers  to  extend  free  grace  and 
pardon  to  all  those  who   had  not  already  committed  any 
heinous  crime,  or  who   had  not  as  yet  been   condemned 
by  any  judicial  process;    but  from  the  benefit  of  this  in- 
demnity the  preachers  and  all  who  liarbored  them  Avere 
to  be  excepted.     On  the  other  hand,  all  leagues,  associa- 
tions, public  assemblies,  and  preachings  were" to  be  hence- 
forth ])rohibited   under  heavy  penalties ;  if,  however,  this 
prohibition  should  be  infringed,  the  regent  was  to  be  at 
liberty  to  employ  the  regular  troops  and  garrisons  for  the 
forcible  reduction  of  the  refractory,  and  also,  in  case  of 


18G       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

necessity,  to  enlist  new  troops,  and  to  name  the  com- 
iiianders  over  them  according  as  should  be  deemed 
advisable.  Finally,  it  would  have  a  good  effect  if  his 
majesty  would  write  to  the  most  eminent  towns,  prelates, 
and  leaders  of  the  nobility,  to  some  in  his  own  hand,  and 
to  all  in  a  gracious  tone,  in  order  to  stimulate  their  zeal 

in  his  service. 

When  this  resolution  of  his  council  of  state  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  king  his  first  measure  was  to  command 
])ublic  processions  and  prayers  in  all  the  most  considera- 
ble places  of  the  kingdom  and  also  of  the  Netherlands, 
imploring  the  Divine  guidance  in  his  decision.  He  ap- 
peared in  his  own  person  in  the  council  of  state  in  order 
to  approve  this  resolution  and  render  it  effective.  He 
declared  the  general  assembly  of  the  states  to  be  useless 
and  entirely  abolished  it.  He,  however,  bound  himself 
to  retain  some  German  regiments  in  his  pay,  and,  that 
they  might  serve  with  the  more  zeal,  to  pay  them  their 
long-standing  arrears.  He  commanded  the  regent  in  a 
]irivate  letter  to  prepare  secretly  for  war ;  three  thousand 
horse  and  ten  thousand  infantry  were  to  be  assembled  by 
her  in  Germany,  to  which  end  he  furnished  her  with  the 
necessary  letters  and  transmitted  to  her  a  sum  of  three 
himdred  thousand  gold  florins.  He  also  accompanied 
tliis  resolution  with  several  autograph  letters  to  some 
private  individuals  and  towns,  in  which  he  thanked  them 
in  the  most  gracious  terms  for  the  zeal  Avhich  they  had 
already  displayed  in  his  service  and  called  upon  them  to 
manifest  the  same  for  the  future.  Notwithstanding  that 
ho  was  inexorable  on  the  most  important  point,  and  the 
very  one  on  which  the  nation  most  particularly  insisted  — - 
tlie  convocation  of  the  states,  notwithstanding  that  his 
limited  and  ambiguous  pardon  Avas  as  good  as  none,  and 
dojtended  too  much  on  arbitrary  will  to  calm  the  public 
mind;  notwithstanding,  in  fine,  that  he  rejected,  as  too 
lenient,  the  proposed  "moderation,"  but  which,  on  the 
part  of  the  people,  was  complained  of  as  too  severe ;  still 
lie  had  this  time  made  an  unwonted  step  in  the  favor  of 
the  nation;  he  had  sacrificed  to  it  the  papal  Inquisition 
and  left  only  the  episcopal,  to  which  it  was  accustomed. 
The   nation   had   found   more   equitable   judges   in   the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        187 

Spanish  council  than  they  could  reasonably  liave  hoped 
for.  Whether  at  another  time  and  under  other  circum- 
stances this  wise  concession  would  have  had  the  desii*ed 
effect  we  will  not  pretend  to  say.  It  came  too  late  ; 
when  (1566)  the  royal  letters  reached  Brussels  the  attack 
on  images  had  already  commenced. 


BOOK  IV. 

THE  ICONOCLASTS. 


The  springs  of  this  extraordinary  occiuTence  are 
plainly  not  to  be  sought  for  so  far  back  as  many  histo- 
rians affect  to  trace  them.  It  is  certainly  possible,  and 
very  probable,  that  the  French  Protestants  did  industri- 
ously exert  themselves  to  raise  in  the  Netherlands  a 
nursery  for  their  religion,  and  to  prevent  by  all  means  in 
tlieir  power  an  amicable  adjustment  of  differences  be- 
tween their  brethren  in  the  faith  in  that  quarter  and  the 
King  of  Spain,  in  order  to  give  that  implacable  foe  of 
their  party  enough  to  do  in  his  own  country.  It  is  nat- 
ural, therefore,  to  suppose  that  their  agents  in  the  prov- 
inces left  nothing  undone  to  encourage  their  oppressed 
brethren  with  daring  hopes,  to  nourish  their  animosity 
against  the  ruling  church,  and  by  exaggerating  the  op- 
pression under  which  they  sighed  to  hurry  them  imper- 
ceptibly into  illegal  courses.  It  is  possible,  too,  that 
there  were  many  among  the  confederates  who  thought  to 
help  out  their  own  lost  cause  by  increasing  the  number 
of  their  partners  in  guilt ;  who  thought  they  could  not 
otherwise  maintain  the  legal  character  of  their  league 
unless  the  unfortunate  results  against  which  they  had 
warned  the  king  really  came  to  pass,  and  who  hoped  in 
the  general  guilt  of  all  to  conceal  their  own  individual 
criminality.  It  is,  however,  incredible  that  the  outbreak 
of  the  Iconoclasts  was  the  fruit  of  a  deliberate  plan,  pre- 
concerted, as  it  is  alleged,  at  the  convent  of  St.  Truyen. 
It  does  not  seem  likely  that  in  a  solemn  assembly  of  so 
many  nobles   and  warriors,  of   whom  the  greater  part 


188        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

were  the  adherents  of  popery,  an  individual  should  be 
found  insane  enough  to  propose  an  act  of  positive  in- 
famy, which  did  not  so  much  injure  any  religious  party 
in  particular,  as  rather  tread  under  foot  all  respect  for 
relio-ion  in  general,  and  even  all  morality  too,  and  which 
couTd  have  been  conceived  only  in  the  mind  of  the  vilest 
reprobate.  Besides,  this  outrage  was  too  sudden  in  its 
outbreak,  too  vehement  in  its  execution  altogether,  too 
monstrous  to  have  been  anything  more  than  the  offspring 
of  the  moment  in  which  it  saw  the  light ;  it  seemed  to 
How  so  naturally  from  the  circumstances  which  preceded 
it  that  it  does  not  require  to  be  traced  far  back  to  re- 
mount to  its  origin. 

A  rude  mob,  consisting  of  the  very  dregs  of  the  pop- 
ulace, made   brutal  by  harsh   treatment,  by  sanguinary 
decrees  which  dogged  them  in  every  town,  scared  from 
place  to  place  and  driven  almost  to  despair,  were  com- 
pelled to  worship  their  God,  and  to  hide  like  a  work  of 
darkness   the   universal,   sacred    privilege   of   humanitv. 
Before  their  eyes  proudly  rose  the  temples  of  the  domi- 
nant church,  in  whicli  their  haughty  brethren  indulged 
in  ease  their  magnificent  devotion,  while  they  themselves 
were  driven  from  the  walls,  expelled,  too,  by  the  weaker 
number  perhaps,   and   forced,   here  in  the  wild  woods, 
under  the  burning  heat  of  noon,  in  disgraceful  secrecy  to 
worship  the  same  God ;  cast  out  from  civil  society  into  a 
state  of  nature,  and  reminded   in  one  dread  moment  of 
the  rights  of  that  state !     The  greater  their  superiority 
of   numbers  the   more    unnatural  did  their  lot  appear; 
with  wonder  they  perceive  the  truth.     The  free  heaven, 
the  arras  lying  ready,  the  frenzy  in  their  brains  and  fury 
in  their  hearts  combine   to  aid  the  suggestions  of  some 
preaching  fanatic ;  the  occasion  calls ;  no  premeditation 
is  necessary  where  all  eyes  at  once  declare  consent ;  the 
resolution  is  formed  ere  yet  the  word  is  scarcely  uttered ; 
ready  for  any  unlawful   act,  no  one  yet  clearly  knows 
Avhat,  the   furious    band    rushes  onwards.     The  smiling 
prosperity  of  the  hostile  religion  insults  the  poverty  of 
their  own ;    the   pomp   of  the   authorized  temples   casts 
contempt  on  their  proscribed  belief ;  every  cross  they  set 
up  upon  the  highway,  every  image  of  the  saints  that  they 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        189 

meet,  is  a  trophy  erected  over  their  own  humiliation,  and 
they  all  must  be  removed  by  their  avenging  hands. 
Fanaticism  suggests  these  detestable  proceedings,  but 
base  passions  carry  them  into  execution. 

1566.  The  commencement  of  the  attack  on  imasrestook 
place  in  West  Flanders  and  Artois,  in  the  districts  be- 
tween Lys  and  the  sea.  A  frantic  herd  of  artisans,  boat- 
men, and  peasants,  mixed  with  prostitutes,  beggars, 
vagabonds,  and  thieves,  about  three  hundred  in  number, 
furnished  with  clubs,  axes,  hammers,  ladders,  and  cords 
(a  few  only  were  provided  with  swords  or  fire  arms),  cast 
themselves,  with  fanatical  fury,  into  the  villages  and 
liamlets  near  St.  Omer,  and  breaking  open  the  gates  of 
such  churches  and  cloisters  as  they  find  locked,  overthrow 
everywhere  the  altars,  break  to  pieces  the  images  of  the 
saints,  and  trample  them  under  foot.  With  their  excite- 
ment increased  by  its  indulgence,  and  reinforced  by  new- 
comers, they  press  on  by  the  direct  road  to  Ypres,  where 
they  can  count  on  the  support  of  a  strong  body  of  Cal- 
vinists.  Unopposed,  they  break  hito  the  cathedral,  and 
mounting  on  ladders  they  hammer  to  pieces  the  pictures, 
hew  down  with  axes  the  pulpits  and  pews,  despoil  the 
altars  of  their  ornaments,  and  steal  the  holy  vessels.  This 
example  was  quickly  followed  in  Menin,  Comines,  Verrieh, 
Lille,  and  Oudenard;  in  a  few  days  the  same  fury  spreads 
through  the  whole  of  Flanders.  At  the  very  time  when 
the  first  tidings  of  this  occurrence  arrived  AntAverp  Avas 
swarming  with  a  croAvd  of  houseless  people,  whicli  the 
feast  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  had  brought  to- 
gether in  that  city.  Even  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange  was  hardly  sufficient  to  restrain  the  licentious 
mob,  who  burned  to  imitate  the  doings  of  their  brethren 
in  St.  Omer;  but  an  order  from  the  court  which  sum- 
moned him  to  Brussels,  where  the  regent  Avas  just  assem- 
bling her  council  of  state,  in  order  to  lay  before  them  the 
royal  letters,  obliged  him  to  abandon  Antwerp  to  the 
outrages  of  this  band.  His  departure  Avas  the  signal  for 
tumult.  Apprehensive  of  the  laAvless  violence  of"  Avhich, 
on  the  very  first  day  of  the  festival,  the  mob  had  given 
indications  in  derisory  allusions,  the  priests,  after  carrying 
about  the  image  of  the  Virgin  for  a  short  time,  brought  it 


190        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

for  safety  to  the  choir,  without,  as  formerly,  setting  it  up 
in  the  middle  of  the  church.  This  incited  some  mischiev- 
ous boys  from  among  the  people  to  pay  it  a  visit  there, 
and  jokingly  inquire  why  she  had  so  soon  absented  her- 
self from  among  them  ?  Others  mounting  the  pulpit, 
mimicked  the  preacher,  and  challenged  the  papists  to  a 
dispute.  A  Koman  Catholic  waterman,  indignant  at  this 
jest,  attempted  to  pull  them  down,  and  blows  were  ex- 
changed in  the  preacher's  seat.  Similar  scenes  occurred 
on  the  following  evening.  The  numbers  increased,  and 
many  came  already  provided  with  suspicious  implements 
and  secret  weapons.  At  last  it  came  into  the  head  of  one 
of  them  to  cry,  "  Long  live  the  Gueux  !  "  immediately  the 
Avhole  band  took  up  the  cry,  and  the  image  of  the  Virgin 
was  called  upon  to  do  the  same.  The  few  Koman  Cath- 
olics Avho  were  present,  and  who  had  given  up  the  hope  of 
effecting  anything  against  these  desperadoes,  left  the 
church  after  locking  all  the  doors  except  one.  So  soon 
as  they  found  themselves  alone  it  was  proposed  to  sing 
one  of  the  psalms  in  the  new  version,  which  was  prohib- 
ited by  the  government.  While  they  were  yet  singing 
they  all,  as  at  a  given  signal,  rushed  furiously  upon  the 
image  of  the  Virgin,  piercing  it  with  swords  and  daggers, 
and  striking  off  its  head  ;  thieves  and  prostitutes  tore  the 
great  wax-lights  from  the  altar,  and  lighted  them  to  the 
work.  The  beautiful  organ  of  the  church,  a  masterpiece 
of  the  art  of  that  period,  was  broken  to  pieces,  all  the 
paintings  were  effaced,  the  statues  smashed  to  atoms.  A 
crucifix,  the  size  of  life,  Avhich  was  set  up  between  the 
two  thieves,  opposite  the  high  altar,  an  ancient  and  highly 
valued  piece  of  workmanship,  was  pulled  to  the  ground 
with  cords,  and  cut  to  pieces  with  axes,  while  the  two 
malefactors  at  its  side  were  respectfully  spared.  The  holy 
WMfers  were  strewed  on  the  ground  and  trodden  under 
foot ;  in  the  wine  used  for  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  was 
accidentally  found  there,  the  health  of  the  Gueux  was 
drunk,  while  with  the  holy  oil  they  rubbed  tlieir  shoes. 
The  very  tombs  were  0})ened,  and  the  half-decayed  corpses 
torn  up  and  trampled  on.  All  this  M'as  done  with  as  much 
Monderful  regularity  as  if  each  had  previously  had  his 
part  assigned  to  him ;  every  one  worked  into  his  neigh- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        191 

bor's  hands  ;  no  one,  dangerous  as  the  Avork  was,  met  with 
injury  ;  in  the  midst  of  thick  darkness,  which  the  tapers 
only  served  to  render  more  sensible,  with  heavy  masses 
falling  on  all  sides,  and  though  on  the  very  topmost  steps 
of  the"  ladders,  they  scuffled  with  each  other  for  the  hon- 
ors of  demolition  — yet  no  one  suffered  the  least  injury. 
In  spite  of  the  many  tapers  which  lighted  them  below  in 
their  villanous  work  not  a  single  individual  Avas  recog- 
nized. With  incredible  rapidity  was  the  dark  deed  ac- 
complished ;  a  number  of  men,  at  most  a  hundred,  de- 
spoiled in  a  few  hours  a  temple  of  seventy  altars  —  after 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  perhaps  the  largest  and  most  mag- 
nificent in  Christendom. 

The  devastation  of  the  cathedral  did  not  content  them; 
with  torches  and  tapers  purloined  from  it  they  set  out  at 
midnight  to  perform  a  similar  work  of  havoc  on  the 
remaining  churches,  cloisters,  and  chapels.  The  destruc- 
tive hordes  increased  with  every  fresh  exploit  of  infamy, 
and  thieves  were  allured  by  the  opportunity.  They  car- 
ried away  whatever  they  found  of  value — the  consecrated 
vessels,  altar-cloths,  money,  and  vestments  ;  in  the  cellars 
ol  the  cloisters  they  drank  to  intoxication  ;  to  escape 
greater  indignities  the  monks  and  nuns  abandoned  every- 
thing to  them.  Tlie  confused  noises  of  these  riotous  acts 
had  startled  the  citizens  from  their  first  sleep ;  but  niglit 
made  the  danger  appear  more  alarming  than  it  really  was, 
ami  instead  of  hastening  to  defend  their  churches  the 
citizens  fortified  themselves  in  their  houses,  and  in  terror 
and  anxiety  awaited  the  dawn  of  morning.  The  rising  sun 
at  length  revealed  the  devastation  which  had  been  going 
on  during  the  night ;  but  the  havoc  did  not  terminate 
with  the  darkness.  Some  churches  and  cloisters  still 
remained  uninjured  ;  the  same  fate  soon  overtook  them 
also.  The  work  of  destruction  lasted  three  whole  days. 
Alarmed  at  last  lest  the  frantic  mob,  when  it  could  no 
longer  find  anything  sacred  to  destroy,  should  make  a 
similar  attack  on  lay  property  and  plunder  their  ware- 
houses ;  and  encouraged,  too,  by  discovering  how  small 
Avas  the  number  of  the  depredators,  the  wealthier  citizens 
ventured  to  show  themselves  in  arms  at  the  doors  of  their 
houses.     All  the  gates  of  the  town  were  locked  but  one, 


192       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 


through  Avhich  tlie  Iconoclasts  broke  forth  to  renew  the 
same  atrocities  in  the  rural  districts.  _  On  one  occasion 
only  during  all  this  time  did  the  municipal  officers  ven- 
ture to  exert  their  authority,  so  strongly  Avere  they  held 
in  awe  by  the  superior  power  of  the  Calvinists,  by  whom, 
as  it  was  believed,  this  mob  of  miscreants  was  hired. 
The  injury  inflicted  by  this  work  of  devastation  was 
incalculable.  In  the  church  of  the  Virgin  it  was  esti- 
mated at  not  less  than  four  hundred  thousand  gold 
florins.  Many  precious  works  of  art  were  destroyed; 
many  valuable  manuscripts  ;  many  monuments  of  impor- 
tance to  history  and  to  diplomacy  ^vere  thereby  lost. 
The  city  magistrate  ordered  the  ])lundered  articles  to  be 
restored  on  pain  of  death ;  in  enforcing  this  restitution 
he  was  effectually  assisted  by  the  preachers  of  the 
Reformers,  who  blushed  for  their  folloM'crs.  Much  was 
in  this  manner  recovered,  and  the  ringleaders  of  the  mob, 
less  animated,  perhaps,  by  the  desire  of  plunder  tlian  by 
fanaticism  and  revenge,  or  perhaps  being  ruled  by  some 
unseen  head,  resolved  for  the  future  to  guard  against 
these  excesses,  and  to  make  their  attacks  in  regular  bands 
and  in  better  order. 

The  town  of  Ghent,  meanwhile,  trembled  for  a  like 
destiny,  linmediately  on  the  first  news  of  the  out- 
break of  the  Iconoclasts  in  Antwerp  the  magistrate 
of  the  former  town  with  the  most  eminent  citizens  had 
bound  themselves  to  repel  by  force  the  church  spoilers  ; 
when  this  oath  was  proposed  to  the  commonalty  also  the 
voices  were  divided,  and  many  declared  openly  that  they 
Avere  by  no  means  disposed  to  hinder  so  devout  a  work. 
In  this  state  of  affairs  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  found 
it  advisable  to  deposit  in  the  citadel  the  most  precious 
movables  of  their  churches,  and  private  families  were 
permitted  in  like  manner  to  provide  for  the  safety  of 
offerings  which  had  been  made  by  their  ancestors.  Mean- 
while all  the  services  were  discontinued,  the  courts  of 
justice  were  closed  ;  and,  like  a  town  in  momentary 
danger  of  being  stormed  by  the  enemy,  men  trembled  in 
expectation  of  what  was  to  come.  At  last  an  iiisnne 
batid  of  rioters  ventured  to  send  delegates  to  the 
governor   with  this    impudent   message  :      "  They  were 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       193 

ordered,"  they  said,  "by  their  chiefs  to  take  the  images 
out  of  the  cliurches,  as  had  been  done  in  the  other  towns. 
If  they  were  not  opposed  it  should  be  done  quietly  and 
with  as  little  injury  as  possible,  but  otherwise  they  would 
storm  the  churches ; "  nay,  they  went  so  far  in  their 
audacity  as  to  ask  the  aid  of  the  officers  of  justice  therein. 
At  first  the  magistrate  was  astounded  at  this  demand  ; 
upon  reflection,  however,  and  in  the  hope  that  the  pres- 
ence of  the  officers  of  law  would  perhaps  restrain  their 
excesses,  he  did  not  scruple  to  grant  their  request. 

In  Tournay  the  churches  were  despoiled  of  their  orna- 
ments within  sight  of   the   garrison,  who  could  not  be 
induced  to  march  against  the  Iconoclasts.     As  the  latter 
had  been  told  that  the  gold  and  silver  vessels  and  other 
ornaments  of  the  church  were  buried  underground,  they 
turned  up  the  whole  floor,  and  exposed,  among  others,  the 
body  of  the  Duke  Adolph  of  Gueldres,  who  fell  in  battle 
at  the  head  of  the  rebellious   burghers  of  Ghent,  and  had 
been  buried  here  in  Tournay.    This  Adolph  had  waged  Avar 
against  his  father,  and  had   dragged  the  vanquished  old 
man  some  miles  barefoot  to    prison  —  an  indignity  which 
Charles  the  Bold  afterwards    retaliated  on   him.     And 
now,  again,  after  more  than    half  a  century  fate  avenged 
a  crime  against  nature  by  another  against  religion  ;  fanati- 
cism  was  to  desecrate  that  which  was  holy  in  order  to 
expose  once  more  to  execration  the  bones  of  a  parricide. 
Other  Iconoclasts  from  Valenciennes  united  themselves 
with  those  of  Tournay  to  despoil  all  the  cloisters  of  the 
surrounding  district,  during  which  a  valuable  library,  the 
accumulation  of  centuries,  was  destroyed  by  fire.     The 
evil  soon  penetrated  into    Brabant,  also  Malines,  Herzo- 
genbusch,  Breda,  and  Bergen-op-Zoom  experienced  the 
same  fate.     The  provinces,  Namur  and  Luxemburg,  with 
a  part  of  Artois   and  of  Hainault,  had    alone  the  good 
fortune  to  escape  the  contagion   of  those  outrages.     In 
the  short  period  of  four  or  five  days  four  hundred  clois- 
ters  were   plundered   in    Brabant    and    Flanders    alone. 
The  northern  Netherlands  were  soon  seized  with  the 
same   mania  which  had  raged   so  violently  through  the 
southern.     The   Dutch  towns,   Amsterdam,  Leyden,  and 
Gi-avenhaag,  had    the   alternative   of   either    voluntarily 


194        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 


Stripping  their  cliurches  of  their  ornaments,  or  of  seeing 
them  violently  torn  from  them;  the  determination  of 
their  magistrates  saved  Delft,  Haarlem,  Gouda,  and 
Rotterdam  from  the  devastation.  The  same  acts  of 
violence  Avere  practised  also  in  the  islands  of  Zealand  ; 
the  town  of  Utrecht  and  many  places  in  Overyssel  and 
Groningen  suffered  the  same  storms.  Friesland  was  pro- 
tected by  the  Count  of  Aremberg,  and  Gueldres  by  the 
Count  of  Megen  from  a  like  fate. 

An  exaggerated  report  of  these  disturbances  which 
came  in  fi'om  the  provinces  spread  the  alarm  to  Brussels, 
where  the  regent  had  just  made  preparations  for  an  ex- 
traordinary session  of  the  council  of  state.  Swarms  of 
Iconoclasts  already  penetrated  into  Brabant ;  and  the 
metropolis,  where  they  were  certain  of  powerful  support, 
was  threatened  by  them  with  a  renewal  of  the  same 
atrocities  then  under  the  very  eyes  of  majesty.  The 
regent,  in  fear  for  her  personal  safety,  which,  even  in  the 
heart  of  the  country,  surrounded  by  provincial  governors 
and  Knights  of  the  Fleece,  she  fancied  insecure,  was 
already  meditating  a  flight  to  Mons,  in  Hainault,  which 
town  the  Duke  of  Arschot  lield  for  her  as  a  place  of  ref-' 
nge,  that  she  might  not  be  driven  to  any  undignified  con- 
cession by  falling  into  the  jjower  of  tlie  Iconoclasts.  In 
vain  did  the  knights  pledge  life  and  blood  for  her  safety, 
and  urgently  beseech  her  not  to  expose  them  to  disgrace 
by  so  dishonorable  a  flight,  as  though  they  Avere  wanting 
in  courage  or  zeal  to  protect  their  princess  ;  to  no  pvtrpose 
did  the  town  of  Brussels  itself  supplicate  her  not  to 
abandon  them  in  this  extremity,  and  vainly  did  the 
council  of  state  make  tlie  most  impressive  representations 
that  so  pusillanimous  a  step  would  not  fail  to  encourage 
still  more  the  insolence  of  the  rebels ;  she  remained  im- 
movable in  this  desjierate  condition.  As  messenger 
after  messenger  arrived  to  warn  her  that  the  Iconoclasts 
were  advancing  against  the  metropolis,  she  issued  orders 
to  hold  everything  in  readiness  for  her  flight,  which  was 
to  take  place  quietly  with  the  first  approach  of  morning. 
At  break  of  day  the  aged  Viglius  presented  himself 
before  her,  whom,  with  the  view  of  gratifying  the  nobles, 
she  had  been  long  accustomed  to  neglect.     He  demanded 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        195 

to  know  the  meaning  of  the  preparations  he  observed, 
upon  which  she  at  last  confessed  that  she  intended  to 
make  her  escape,  and  assured  him  that  he  would  himself 
do  well  to  secure  his  own  safety  by  accorajianying  her. 
"It  is  now  two  years,"  said  the  old  man  to  her,  "that 
you  might  have  anticipated  these  results.  Because  I 
have  spoken  more  freely  than  your  courtiers  you  have 
closed  your  princely  ear  to  me,  which  has  been  open 
only  to  pernicious  suggestions."  The  regent  allowed 
that  she  had  been  in  fault,  and  had  been  blinded  by  an 
appearance  of  probity ;  but  that  she  was  now  driven  by 
necessity.  "Are  you  resolved,"  answered  Viglius,  "res- 
olutely to  insist  upon  obedience  to  the  royal  commands?" 
"  I  am,"  answered  the  duchess.  "  Then  have  recourse  to 
the  great  secret  of  the  art  of  government,  to  dissimula- 
tion, and  2^1'etend  to  join  the  princes  until,  with  their 
assistance,  you  have  repelled  tliis  storm.  Show  them  a 
confidence  which  you  are  far  from  feeling  in  your  heart. 
Make  them  take  an  oath  to  you  that  they  will  make  com- 
mon cause  in  resisting  these  disorders.  Trust  those  as 
your  friends  who  show  themselves  willing  to  do  it ;  but 
be  careful  to  avoid  frightening  away  the  others  by  con- 
temptuous treatment."  Viglius  kept  the  regent  engaged 
in  conversation  until  the  princes  arrived,  who  he  was 
quite  certain  Avould  in  nowise  consent  to  her  flight. 
When  they  apj^eared  he  quietly  withdrew  in  order  to 
issue  commands  to  the  town  council  to  close  the  gates  of 
the  city  and  prohibit  egress  to  every  one  connected  with 
the  court.  This  last  measure  effected  more  than  all  the 
representations  had  done.  The  regent,  who  saw  herself 
a  prisoner  in  her  own  capital,  now  yielded  to  the  per- 
suasions of  the  nobles,  who  pledged  themselves  to  stand 
by  her  to  the  last  drop  of  blood.  She  made  Count 
Mansfeld  commandant  of  the  town,  who  hastily  increased 
the  garrison  and  armed  her  whole  court. 

The  state  council  was  now  held,  Avho  finally  came  to  a 
resolution  that  it  was  expedient  to  yield  to  the  emer- 
gency; to  permit  the  preachings  in  those  places  where 
they  had  already  commenced ;  to  make  known  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  papal  Inquisition  ;  to  declare  the  old  edicts 
against  the  heretics  repealed,  and  before  all  things  to 


106        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

grant  the  required  indemnity  to  the  confederate  nobles, 
■without  limitation  or  condition.  At  the  same  time  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn,  with  some 
others,  were  ajipointed  to  confer  on  this  head  with  the 
deputies  of  the  league.  Solemnly  and  in  the  most  une- 
quivocal terms  the  members  of  the  league  were  declared 
free  from  all  responsibility  by  reason  of  the  petition 
which  had  been  presented,  and  all  royal  officers  and  au- 
thorities were  enjoined  to  act  in  conformity  with  this 
assurance,  and  neither  now  nor  for  the  future  to  inflict 
any  injury  upon  any  of  the  confederates  on  account 
of  the  said  petition.  In  return,  the  confederates  bound 
themselves  to  be  true  and  loyal  servants  of  his  majesty, 
to  contribute  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  to  the  re-es- 
tablishment of  order  and  the  punishment  of  the  Icono- 
clasts, to  prevail  on  the  people  to  lay  down  their  arms, 
and  to  afford  active  assistance  to  the  king  against  inter- 
nal and  foreign  enemies.  Secui'ities,  formally  drawn  up 
and  subscribed  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  both  sides, 
were  exchanged  between  them  ;  the  letter  of  indenmity, 
in  particular,  was  signed  by  the  duchess  with  her  own 
hand  and  attested  by  her  seal.  It  was  only  after  a  severe 
struggle,  and  with  tears  in  her  eves,  that  the  recent,  as 
she  tremblingly  confessed  to  the  king,  was  at  last  induced 
to  consent  to  this  painful  step.  She  threw  the  whole 
blame  upon  the  nobles,  who  had  kept  her  a  prisoner  in 
Brussels  and  compelled  her  to  it  by  force.  Above  all  she 
complained  bitterly  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

This  business  accomplished,  all  the  governors  hastened  to 
their  provinces  ;  Egmont  to  Flanders,  Orange  to  Antwerp. 
In  the  latter  citytlie  Protestants  liad  seized  the  despoiled 
and  plundered  churches,  and,  as  if  by  the  rights  of  wai', 
had  taken  possession  of  them.  The  prince  restored  them 
to  their  lawful  owners,  gave  orders  for  their  rejiair,  and 
re-established  in  them  the  Roman  Catholic  form  of  wor- 
sliip.  Three  of  the  Iconoclasts,  who  had  been  convicted, 
paid  the  penalty  of  their  sacrilege  on  the  galloAvs ;  some 
of  the  rioters  wore  banisherl,  and  many  others  underwent 
punishment.  Afterwards  he  assembled  four  deputies  of 
each  dialect,  or  nations,  as  they  were  termed,  and  agreed 
with  them  that,  as  the  approaching  winter  made  preach- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       197 

ing  in  the  open  air  impossible,  three  places  within  the 
town  should  be  granted  them,  where  tliey  might  either 
erect  new  churches,  or  convert  private  houses  to  that 
purpose.  That  they  should  there  perform  their  service 
every  Sunday  and  holiday,  and  always  at  the  same  hour, 
but  on  no  other  days.  If,  however,  no  holiday  happened 
in  the  week,  Wednesday  should  be  kept  by  them  instead. 
JSTo  religious  party  should  maintain  more  than  two  clergy- 
men, and  these  ra'ust  be  native  Netherlanders,  or  at  least 
have  received  naturalization  from  some  considerable  town 
of  the  provinces.  All  should  take  an  oath  to  submit  in 
civil  matters  to  the  municipal  authorities  and  the  Prince 
of  Orange.  They  should  be  liable,  like  the  other  citizens, 
to  all  iuTposts.  No  one  should  attend  sermons  armed ;  a 
sword,  however,  should  be  allowed  to  each.  No  preacher 
should  assail  the  ruling  religion  from  the  pulpit,  nor  enter 
upon  controverted  points,  beyond  what  the  doctrine  itself 
rendered  unavoidable,  or  what  might  refer  to  morals.  No 
psalm  should  be  sung  by  them  out  of  their  appointed 
district.  At  the  election  of  their  preachers,  churchward- 
ens, and  deacons,  as  also  at  all  their  other  consistorial 
meetings,  a  person  from  tlie  government  should  on  each 
occasion  be  present  to  report  their  proceedings  to  the 
prince  and  the  magistrate.  As  to  all  other  ponits  they 
should  enjoy  the  same  protection  as  the  ruling  religion. 
This  arrangement  was  to  hold  good  until  the  king,  with 
consent  of  the  states,  should  determine  otherwise  ;  but 
then  it  should  be  free  to  every  one  to  quit  the  coun- 
try with  his  family  and  his  property.  From  Antwerp 
the  prince  hastened  to  Holland,  Zealand,  and  Utrecht, 
in  order  to  make  there  similar  arrangements  for  the  res- 
toration of  peace  ;  Antwerp,  however,  was,  during  his 
absence,  entrusted  to  the  superintendence  of  Count  Hog- 
straten,  who  was  a  mild  man,  and  although  an  adherent 
of  the  league,  had  never  failed  in  loyalty  to  the  king.  It 
is  evident  that  in  this  agreement  the  prince  had  far  over- 
stepped the  powers  entrusted  to  him,  and  though  in  the 
service  of  the  king  had  acted  exactly  like  a  sovereign 
lord.  But  he  alleged  in  excuse  that  it  would  be  far 
easier  to  the  magistrate  to  watch  these  numerous  and 
powerful  sects  if  he  himself  interfered  in  their  worship, 


198        EEYOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

and  if  this  took  place  under  his  eyes,  than  if  he  were 
to  leave  the  sectarians  to  themselves  in  the  open  air. 

In  Gueldres  Count  Megen  showed  more  severity,  and 
entirely  suppressed  the  Protestant  sects  and  banished  all 
their  preachers.  In  Brussels  the  regent  availed  herself 
of  the  advantage  derived  from  her  personal  presence  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  public  preaching,  even  outside  the  town. 
"When,  in  reference  to  this,  Count  Nassau  reminded  her 
in  the  name  of  the  confederates  of  the  compact  which 
had  been  entered  into,  and  demanded  if  the  town  of 
Brussels  had  inferior  rights  to  the  other  towns  ?  she  an- 
swered, if  there  were  public  preachings  in  Brussels  before 
the  treaty,  it  was  not  her  work  if  they  were  now  discon- 
tinued. At  the  same  time,  Ijowever,  she  secretly  gave 
the  citizens  to  understand  that  the  first  who  should  ven- 
ture to  attend  a  public  sermon  should  certainly  be  hung. 
Thus  she  kept  the  capital  at  least  faithful  to  her. 

It  was  more  difficult  to  quiet  Tournay,  which  office  was 
committed  to  Count  Horn,  in  the  place  of  Montigny,  to 
whose  government  the  town  properly  belonged.  Horn 
commanded  the  Protestants  to  vacate  the  churches  im- 
mediately, and  to  content  themselves  with  a  house  of 
worship  outside  the  walls.  To  this  their  preachers  ob- 
jected that  the  churches  were  erected  for  the  use  of  the 
people,  by  which  term,  they  said,  not  the  heads  but  the 
majority  were  meant.  If  they  were  expelled  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  churches  it  was  at  least  fair  that  they 
should  be  furnished  with  money  for  erecting  churches  of 
their  own.  To  this  the  magistrate  replied  even  if  the 
Catholic  party  was  the  weaker  it  was  indisputably  the 
better.  The  erection  of  churches  should  not  be  forbidden 
them  ;  they  could  not,  however,  after  the  injury  which 
the  town  had  ah-eady  suffered  from  their  brethren,  the 
Iconoclasts,  very  well  expect  that  it  should  be  further 
burdened  bv  the  erection  of  their  churches.  After  longr 
quarrelling  on  both  sides,  the  Protestants  contrived  to 
retain  possession  of  some  churches,  which,  for  greater 
security,  they  occupied  with  guards.  In  Valenciennes, 
too,  the  Protestants  refused  submission  to  the  conditions 
which  were  offered  to  them  through  Philip  St.  Alde- 
gonde,  Baron  of  Noircarmes,  to  whom,  in  the  absence  of 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        199 

the  Marquis  of  Bergen,  the  government  of  that  place  was 
entrusted.  A  reformed  preacher,  La  Grange,  a  Frenchman 
by  birth,  who  by  his  eloquence  had  gained  a  complete 
command  over  them,  urged  them  to  insist  on  having 
churches  of  their  own  wi'thin  the  town,  and  to  threaten 
in  case  of  refusal  to  deliver  it  up  to  the  Huguenots.  A 
sense  of  the  superior  numbers  of  the  Calvinists,  and  of 
their  understanding  with  the  Huguenots,  prevented  the 
governor  adopting  forcible  measures  against  them. 

Count  Egmont,  also  to  manifest  his  zeal  for  the  king's 
service,  did" violence  to  his  natural  kind-heartedness.  In- 
troducing a  garrison  into  the  town  of  Ghent,  he  caused 
some  of  the  "most  refractory  rebels  to  be  put  to  death. 
The  churches  were  reopened,  the  Roman  Catholic  worship 
renewed,  and  all  foreigners,  Avithout  exception,  ordered  to 
quit  the  province.  To  the  Calvinists,  but  to  them  alone, 
a  site  was  granted  outside  the  town  for  the  erection  of  a 
church.  In  return  they  were  compelled  to  pledge  them- 
selves to  the  most  rigid  obedience  to  the  municipal 
authorities,  and  to  active  co-operation  in  the  proceedings 
against  the  Iconoclasts.  He  pursued  similar  measures 
through  all  Flanders  and  Artois.  One  of  his  noblemen, 
John  "Cassembrot,  Baron  of  Beckerzeel,  and  a  leaguer, 
pursuing  the  Iconoclasts  at  the  head  of  some  horsemen 
of  the  league,  surprised  a  band  of  them  just  as  they 
were  about  to  break  into  a  town  of  Hainault,  near  Gram- 
mont,  in  Flanders,  and  took  thirty  of  them  prisoners,  of 
whom  twenty-two  were  hung  upon  the  spot,  and  the  rest 
whipped  out  of  the  province. 

Services  of  such  importance  one  would  have  thought 
scarcely  deserved  to  be  rewarded  with  the  displeasure  of 
the  king;  what  Orange,  Egmont,  and  Horn  performed  on 
this  occasion  evinced  at  least  as  much  zeal  and  had  as 
beneficial  a  result  as  anything  that  was  accomplished  by 
Noircarmes,  Megen,  and  Aremberg,  to  whom  the  king 
vouchsafed  to  show  his  gratitude  both  by  words  and 
deeds.  But  their  zeal,  their  services  came  too  late.  They 
had  spoken  too  loudly  against  his  edicts,  had  been  too 
vehement  in  their  opposition  to  his  measures,  had  insulted 
him  too  grossly  in  the  person  of  his  minister  Granvella, 
to  leave  room'  for  forgiveness.     No  time,  no  repentance, 


200       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

no  atonement,  however  great,  could  efface  this  one  offence 
from  the  memory  of  their  sovereign. 

Philip  lay  sick  at  Segovia  wlien  the  news  of  the  out- 
break of  the  Iconoclasts  and  the  uncatholic  agreement 
entered  into  with  the  Reformers  reached  him.  At  the 
same  time  the  regent  renewed  her  urgent  entreaty  for  his 
personal  visit,  of  which  also  all  the  letters  treated,  which 
the  President  Viglius  exchanged  with  his  friend  Hopper. 
Many  also  of  the  Belgian  nobles  addressed  special  letters 
to  the  king,  as,  for  instance,  Egmont,  Munsfeld,  Megen, 
Aremberg,  Noircarmes,  and  Barlaimont,  in  which  they 
reported  the  state  of  their  provinces,  and  at  once  explained 
and  justified  the  arrangements  they  had  made  with  the 
disaffected.  Just  at  this  period  a  letter  arrived  from  the 
German  Emperor,  in  Avhich  he  recommended  Philip  to  act 
with  clemency  towards  his  Belgian  subjects,  and  offered 
his  mediation  in  the  matter.  He  had  also  written  direct 
to  the  regent  herself  in  Brussels,  and  added  letters  to  the 
several  leaders  of  the  nobility,  which,  however,  were 
never  delivered.  Having  conquered  the  first  anger  which 
this  hateful  occurrence  had  excited,  the  king  referred  the 
whole  matter  to  his  council. 

The  party  of  Granvella,  which  had  the  preponderance 
in  the  council,  was  diligent  in  tracing  a  close  connection 
between  the  behavior  of  the  Flemish  nobles  and  the  ex- 
cesses of  the  church  desecrators,  which  showed  itself  in 
similarity  of  the  demands  of  both  parties,  and  especially 
the  time  which  the  latter  chose  for  their  outbreak.  In 
the  same  month,  they  observed,  in  which  the  nobles  had 
sent  in  their  three  articles  of  pacification,  the  Iconoclasts 
had  conimenced  their  work ;  on  the  evening  of  the  very 
day  that  Orange  quitted  Antwerp  the  churches  too  were 
plundered.  During  the  whole  tumult  not  a  finger  was 
lifted  to  take  up  arms ;  all  the  expedients  employed  were 
invariably  such  as  turned  to  the  advantage  of  the  sects, 
while,  on  the  contrary,  all  others  were  neglected  which 
tended  to  the  maintenance  of  the  pure  faith.  Many  of 
the  Iconoclasts,  it  was  further  said,  had  confessed  that  all 
that  they  had  done  was  with  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  the  princes  ;  though  surely  nothing  was  more  natural, 
than  for  such  worthless  wretches  to  seek  to  screen  with 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        201 

great  names  a  crime  which  they  had  undertaken  solely 
on  tlieir  own  account.  A  writing  also  was  produced  in 
which  the  high  nobility  were  made  to  promise  their 
services  to  the  "  Gueux,"  to  procure  the  assembly  of  the 
states  general,  the  genuineness  of  which,  however,  the 
former  strenuously  denied.  Four  different  seditious 
parties  were,  they  said,  to  be  noticed  in  the  Netherlands, 
Avhich  were  all  more  or  less  connected  with  one  another, 
and  all  worked  towards  a  common  end.  One  of  these 
was  those  bands  of  reprobates  wlio  desecrated  the  churches ; 
a  second  consisted  of  the  various  sects  Avho  had  hired  the 
former  to  perform  their  infamous  acts ;  the  "  Gueux," 
who  had  raised  themselves  to  be  the  defenders  of  the 
sects  were  the  third ;  and  the  leading  nobles  who  were 
inclined  to  the  "Gueux"  by  feudal  connections,  relation-' 
ship,  and  friendship,  composed  the  fourth.  All,  conse- 
quently, were  alike  fatally  infected,  and  all  equally  guilty. 
The  government  had  not  merely  to  guard  against  a  few 
isolated  members ;  it  had  to  contend  with  the  whole 
body.  Since,  then,  it  was  ascertained  that  the  people 
were  the  seduced  party,  and  the  encouragement  to  re- 
bellion came  from  higher  quarters,  it  would  be  wise  and 
expedient  to  alter  the  plan  hitherto  adopted,  Avhich  now 
appeared  defective  in  several  respects.  Inasmuch  as  all 
classes  had  been  oppressed  without  distinction,  and  as 
much  of  severity  shown  to  the  lower  orders  as  of  contempt 
to  the  nobles,  both  had  been  compelled  to  lend  support  to  one 
another  ;  a  party  had  been  given  to  the  latter  and  leaders 
to  the  former.  Unequal  treatment  seemed  an  infallible 
expedient  to  separate  them ;  the  mob,  always  timid  and 
indolent  when  not  goaded-  by  the  extremity  of  distress, 
would  very  soon  desert  its  adored  protectors  and  quickly 
learn  to  see  in  their  fate  well-merited  retribution  if  only 
it  was  not  driven  to  share  it  Avith  them.  It  was  therefore 
proposed  to  the  king  to  treat  the  great  multitude  for  the 
future  with  more  leniency,  and  to  direct  all  measures  of 
severity  against  the  leaders  of  the  faction.  In  order, 
however,  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  a  disgraceful  con- 
cession, it  was  considered  advisable  to  accept  the  media- 
tion of  the  Emperor,  and  to  impute  to  it  alone  and  not  to 
the  justice  of  their  demands,  that  the  king  out  of  pure 


202       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

generosity  had  granted  to  bis  Belgian  subjects  as  much 
as  they  asked. 

The  question  of  the  liing's  personal  visit  to  the  prov- 
inces was  now  again  mooted,  and  all  the  difficulties  which 
had  formerly  been  raised  on  this  head  appeared  to  vanish 
before  the  present  emergency.  "  Now,"  said  Tyssen- 
acque  and  Hopper,  "the  juncture  has  really  arrived  at 
which  the  king,  according  to  his  own  declaration  formerly 
made  to  Count  Egmont,  will  be  ready  to  risk  a  thousand 
lives.  To  restore  quiet  to  Ghent  Charles  V.  had  under- 
taken a  troublesome  and  dangerous  journey  through  an 
enemy's  country.  This  Avas  done  for  the  sake  of  a  single 
town ;  and  now  the  peace,  perhaps  even  the  possession, 
of  all  the  United  Provinces  was  at  stake."  This  was 
the  opinion  of  the  majority  ;  and  the  journey  of  tlie  king 
was  looked  upon  as  a  matter  from  which  he  could  not 
possibly  any  longer  escape. 

The  question  now  was,  whether  he  should  enter  upon 
it  with  a  numerous  body  of  attendants  or  with  few  ;  and 
heie  the  Prince  of  Eboli  and  Count  Figueroa  were  at 
issue  with  the  Duke  of  Alva,  as  their  private  interests 
clashed.  If  the  king  journeyed  at  the  head  of  an  army 
the  presence  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  would  be  indispensable, 
who,  on  the  other  hand,  if  matters  were  peaceably  ad- 
justed, would  be  less  required,  and  must  make  room  for 
his  rivals.  "An  army,"  said  Figueroa,  who  spoke  first, 
"  would  alarm  the  princes  through  Avhose  territories  it 
must  march,  and  perhaps  even  be  opposed  by  them  ;  it 
would,  moreover,  unnecessarily  burden  the  provinces  for 
whose  tranquillization  it  was  intended,  and  add  a  new 
grievance  to  the  many  which  had  already  driven  the 
people  to  such  lengths.  It  would  press  indiscriminately 
upon  all  of  the  king's  subjects,  whereas  a  court  of  justice, 
peaceably  administering  its  office,  would  observe  a  marked 
distinction  between  the  innocent  and  the  guilty.  The 
unwonted  violence  of  the  former  course  would  tempt  the 
leaders  of  the  faction  to  take  a  more  alarming  view  of 
their  behavior,  in  which  wantonness  and  levity  had  the 
chief  share,  and  consequently  induce  them  to  proceed 
with  deliberation  and  union  ;  the  thought  of  having  forced 
tlie  king  to  such  lengths  would  plunge  them  into  despair, 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       203 

in  which  they  would  be  ready  to  undertake  anything.     If 
the  kini?  placed  himself  in  arms  against  the  rebels  he  would 
forfeit  the  most  important  advantage  which  he  possessed 
over  them,   namely,   his    authority   as  sovereign  of   the 
country,  which  would  prove  the  more  powerful  in  pro- 
portion as  he  showed  his  reliance  upon  that  alone.     He 
would  place  himself  thereby,  as  it  Avere,  on  a  level  with 
the  rebels,  who  on  their  side  would  not  be  at  a  loss  to 
raise  an  army,  as  the  universal  hatred  of   the   Spanish 
forces  would  operate  in  their  favor  with  the  nation.     By 
this  procedure  the  king  would  exchange  the  certain  ad- 
vantage which  his  position  as  sovereign  of  the  country 
conferred  upon  him  for  the  uncertain  result  of  military 
operations,  which,  result  as  they  might,  would  of  necessity 
destroy  a  portion  of  his  own  subjects.     The  rumor  of  his 
hostile  approach  would  outrun  him  time  enough  to  allow 
all  who  were  conscious  of  a  bad  cause  to  place  themselves 
in  a  posture  of  defence,  and  to  coTubine  and  render  avail- 
ino-  both  their  foreign   and  domestic  resources.      Here 
ao-ain  the  general  alarm  would  do  them  important  service  ; 
the   uncertainty  who  would  be  the  first  object  of  this 
warlike  ap]>roach  would  drive  even  the  less  guilty  to  the 
o-eneral  mass  of  the  rebels,  and  force  those  to  become 
enemies  to  the  king  who  otherwise  would  never  have  been 
so.     If,  however,  he  was  coming  among  them  Avithout 
such  a  formidable  accompaniment ;  if  his  appearance  Avas 
less  that  of  a  sanguinary  judge  than  of  an  angry  parent, 
the  courage  of  all  good  men  Avould   rise,  and  the  bad 
would  perish  in  their  own   security.     They  would  per- 
suade themselves  Avhat  had  happened  Avas  unimportant ; 
that  it  did  not  appear  to  the  king  of  sufficient  moment  to 
call  for  strong  measures.     They  Avished  if  they  could  to 
avoid  the  chance  of  ruining,  by  acts  of  open  violence,  a 
cause  which  might  perhaps  yet  be  saved  ;  _  consequently, 
by  this   quiet,  peaceable   method   everything  Avould   be 
gained  which  by  the  other  would  be  irretrievably  lost ; 
the  loyal  subject  Avould  in  no  degree  be  involved  in  the 
same  punishment  Avith  the  culpable  rebel;  on  the  latter 
alone  would  the  whole  weight  of  the  royal  indignation 
descend.    Lastly,  the  enormous  expenses  would  be  avoided 
which  the  transport  of  a  Spanish  army  to  those  distant 
regions  would  occasion. 


204       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

«  But,"  began  the  Duke  of  Alva,  "  ouglit  the  injury  of 
some  few  citizens  to  be  considered  when  danger  impends 
over  the  whole?     Because  a  few  of  the  loyally-disposed 
may  suffer  wrong   are   the   rebels   therefore  not  to  be 
chastised?     The  offence  has   been   universal,  why  then 
should  not  the  punishment  be  the  same?      What   the 
rebels  have  incurred  by  their  actions  the  rest  have  iii- 
curred  equally  by  their  supineness.     Whose  fault  is  it 
but  tlieirs  that  the  former  have  so  far  succeeded  V     Why 
did  they  not  promptly  oppose  their  first  attempts  ?     It  is 
sr/id  that  circumstances  were  not  so  desperate  as  to  jus- 
tify this  violent  remedy  ;  but  who  will   insure   us  that 
they  will  not  be  so  by  the  time  the  king  arrives,  especi- 
ally wlien,  according  to  every  fresh  despatch  of  the  re- 
o-ent,  all  is  hastening  with  rapid  strides  to  a  ruinous  con- 
summation ?     Is  it  a  hazard  we  ought  to  run  to  leave  the 
king  to  discover  on  his  entrance  into  the  provinces  the 
necessity  of  his  having  brought  with  hhn  a  military  force  ? 
It  is  a  fact  only  too  well-established  that  the  rebels  have 
secured  foi-eign  succors,  which  stand  ready  at  their  com- 
mand on  the'^first  signal ;  will  it  then  be  time  to  think  of 
preparing  for  war  when  the  enemy  pass  the  frontiers? 
Is  it  a  wise  risk  to  rely  for  aid  upon  the  nearest  Belgian 
troops  when  their  loyalty  is  so  little  to  be  depended  upon  ? 
And  is  not  the  regent  perpetually  reverting  in  her  des- 
patches to  the  fact  that  nothing  but  the  want  of  a  suitable 
military  force  has  hitherto   hindered  her  from  enforcing 
the  edicts,  and  stopping  the  progress  of  the  rebels?     A 
well-disciplined  and  formidable   army  alone  will  disap- 
point all  their  hopes  of  maintaining  themselves  in  oppo- 
sition to  their  lawful  sovereign,  and  nothing  but  the  cer- 
tain prospect  of  destruction  will  make  them  lower  their 
demands.     Besides,  without  an  adequate  force,  the  king 
cannot  venture  his  person  in  hostile  countries  ;  he  cannot 
enter  into  any  treaties  with  his  rebellious  subjects  which 
would  not  be  derogatory  to  his  honor." 

The  authority  of  the  speaker  gave  preponderance  to 
his  arguments,  and  the  next  question  was,  when  the  king 
should  commence  his  journey  and  what  road  he  should 
take.  As  the  voyage  by  sea  was  on  every  account  ex- 
tremely hazardous,  he  had  no  other  alternative  but  either 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.         205 

to  proceed  thitlier  through  the  passes  near  Trent  across 
Germany,  or  to  penetrate  from  Savoy  over  the  Apennine 
Alps.  The  first  route  would  expose  him  to  the  danger 
of  the  attack  of  the  German  Protestants,  who  were  not 
likely  to  view  with  indifference  the  objects  of  his  journey, 
and  a  passage  over  the  Apennines  was  at  this  late  season 
of  the  year  not  to  be  attempted.  Moreover,  it  would 
be  necessary  to  send  for  the  requisite  galleys  from  Italy, 
and  repair  them,  which  would  take  several  months.  Fi- 
nally, as  the  assembly  of  the  Cortes  of  Castile,  from  which 
he  could  not  well  be  absent,  was  already  appointed  for 
December,  the  journey  could  not  be  undertaken  before 
the  spring.  Meanwhile  the  regent  pressed  for  explicit 
instructions  how  she  was  to  extricate  herself  from  her 
present  embarrassment,  without  compromising  the  royal 
dignity  too  far;  and  it  was  necessary  to  do  something  in 
the  interval  till  the  king  could  undertake  to  appease  the 
troubles  by  his  personal  presence.  Two  separate  letters 
were  therefore  despatched  to  the  duchess  ;  one  p\;blic, 
which  she  could  lay  before  the  states  and  the  council 
chambers,  and  one  private,  which  was  intended  for  her- 
self alone.  In  the  first,  the  king  announced  to  her  his 
restoration  to  health,  and  the  fortunate  birth  of  the  In- 
fanta Clara  Isabella  Eugenia,  afterwards  wife  of  the 
Archduke  Albert  of  Austria  and  Princess  of  the  Nether- 
lands. He  declared  to  her  his  present  firm  intention  to 
visit  the  Netherlands  in  person,  for  which  he  was  already 
making  the  necessary  ])reparations.  The  assembling  of 
the  states  he  refused,  as  he  had  previously  done.  No  men- 
tion was  made  in  this  letter  of  the  agreement  which  she 
had  entered  into  with  the  Protestants  and  with  the 
league,  because  he  did  not  deem  it  advisable  at  present 
absolutely  to  reject  it,  and  he  was  still  less  disposed  to 
acknowledge  its  validity.  On  the  other  hand,  he  ordered 
her  to  'reinforce  the  army,  to  draw  together  new  regi- 
ments from  Germany,  and  to  meet  the  i-efractory  with 
force.  For  the  rest,  he  concluded,  he  relied  upon  the 
loyalty  of  the  leading  nobility,  among  whom  he  knew 
many  who  were  sincere  in  their  attachment  both  to  their 
religion  and  their  king.  In  the  secret  letter  she  was 
again   enjomed   to  do  all  in  her  power  to  prevent  the 


206        REVOLT  or  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

assembling  of  the  states ;  but  if  the  general  voice  should 
become  irresistible,  and  she  was  compelled  to  yield,  she 
was  at  least  to  manage  so  cautiously  that  the  royal  dig- 
nity should  not  suffer,  and  no  one  learn  the  king's  consent 
to  their  assembly. 

Wliile  these  consultations  were  held  in  Spain  the  Prot- 
estants in  the  Netherlands  made  the  most  extensive  use 
of  the  privileges  which  had  been  compulsorily  granted  to 
them.  The  erection  of  churches  wherever  it  was  per- 
mitted was  completed  with  incredible  rapidity ;  young 
and  old,  gentle  and  simple,  assisted  in  carrying  stones  ; 
women  sacrificed  even  their  ornaments  in  order  to  accele- 
rate the  work.  The  two  religious  parties  established  in 
several  towns  consistories,  and  a  church  council  of  their 
own,  the  first  move  of  the  kind  being  made  in  Antwerp, 
and  placed  their  form  of  worship  on  a  well-regulated 
footing.  It  wag  also  proposed  to  raise  a  common  fund 
by  subscription  to  meet  any  sudden  emergency  of  the 
Protestant  church  in  general.  In  Antwerp  a  memorial 
was  presented  by  the  Calvinists  of  that  town  to  the 
Count  of  Hogstraten,  in  which  they  offered  to  pay  three 
millions  of  dollars  to  secure  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  Many  copies  of  this  writing  were  circulated 
in  the  Netherlands;  and  in  order  to  stimulate  others, 
many  had  ostentatiously  subscribed  their  names  to  large 
sums.  Various  interpretations  of  this  extravagant  offer 
were  made  by  the  enemies  of  the  Reformers,  and  all  had 
some  appearance  of  reason.  For  instance,  it  was  urged 
that  under  the  pretext  of  collecting  the  requisite  sum  for 
fulfilling  this  engagement  they  hoped,  without  suspicion, 
to  raise  funds  for  military  purposes  ;  for  whether  they 
should  be  called  upon  to  contribute  ^/br  or  against  they 
would,  it  was  thought,  be  more  ready  to  burden  them- 
selves with  a  view  of  preserving  peace  than  for  an  oppress- 
ive and  devasting  war.  Others  saw  in  this  offer  nothing 
more  than  a  temporary  stratagem  of  the  Protestants  by 
which  they  hoped  to  bind  the  court  and  keep  it  irresolute 
until  they  should  have  gained  sufficient  strength  to  con- 
front it.  Others  again  declared  it  to  be  a  downright 
bravado  in  order  to  alarm  the  regent,  and  to  raise  the 
courage  of  their  own  party  by  the  display  of  such  rich 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       207 

resources.  But  whatever  was  the  true  motive  of  this 
proposition,  its  originators  gained  little  by  it ;  the  con- 
tributions flowed  in  scantily  and  slowly,  and  the  court 
answered  the  proposal  with  silent  contempt.  The  ex- 
cesses, too,  of  the  Iconoclasts,  far  from  promoting  the 
cause  of  the  leaacue  and  advancing  the  Protestants'  inter- 
ests,  had  done  irreparable  injury  to  both.  The  sight  of 
their  ruined  churches,  which,  in  the  language  of  Viglius, 
resembled  stables  more  than  houses  of  God,  enraged  the 
Roman  Catholics,  and  above  all  the  clergy.  All  of  that 
religion,  who  had  hitherto  been  members  of  the  league, 
now  forsook  it,  alleging  that  even  if  it  had  not  intention- 
ally excited  and  encouraged  the  excesses  of  the  Icono- 
clasts it  had  beyond  question  remotely  led  to  them.  The 
intolerance  of  the  Calvinists  who,  wherever  they  were 
the  ruling  party,  cruelly  oppressed  the  Roman  Catholics, 
completely  expelled  the  delusion  in  which  the  latter  had 
long  indulged,  and  they  withdrew  their  support  from  a 
party  from  which,  if  they  obtained  the  upper  hand,  their 
own  religion  had  so  much  cause  to  fear.  Thus  the 
league  lost  many  of  its  best  members ;  the  friends  and 
patrons,  too,  which  it  had  hitherto  found  amongst  the  well- 
disposed  citizens  now  deserted  it,  and  its  character  began 
perceptibly  to  decline.  The  severity  with  which  some  of 
its  members  had  acted  against  the  Iconoclasts  in  order  to 
prove  their  good  disposition  towards  the  regent,  and  to 
remove  the  sus])icion  of  any  connection  with  the  malcon- 
tents, had  also  injured  them  with  the  people  who  favored 
the  latter,  and  thus  the  league  was  in  danger  of  ruining 
itself  with  both  parties  at  tlie  same  time. 

The  regent  had  no  sooner  became  acquainted  with  this 
change  in  the  public  mind  than  she  devised  a  plan  by 
which  she  hoped  gradually  to  dissolve  the  whole  league, 
or  at  least  to  enfeeble  it  through  internal  dissensions. 
For  this  end  she  availed  herself  of  the  private  letters 
which  the  king  had  addressed  to  some  of  the  nobles,  and 
enclosed  to  her  with  full  liberty  to  use  them  at  her  dis- 
cretion. These  letters,  which  overflowed  with  kind  expres- 
sions were  presented  to  those  for  whom  they  w^ere  intended, 
with  an  attempt  at  secrecy,  which  designedly  miscarried, 
so  that  on  each  occasion  some  one  or  other  of  those  who 


208       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

had  received  nothing  of  the  sort  got  a  hint  of  them.  In 
order  to  spread  suspicion  the  more  widely  numerous 
copies  of  the  letters  were  circulated.  This  artifice  attained 
its  object.  Many  memhers  of  the  league  began  to  doubt 
the  honesty  of  those  to  whom  such  brilliant  promises 
were  made  ;  through  fear  of  being  deserted  by  their 
principal  members  and  supporters,  they  eagerly  accepted 
the  conditions  which  were  offered  them  by  the  regent, 
and  evinced  great  anxiety  for  a  speedy  reconciliation 
with  the  court.  Tlie  general  rumor  of  the  impending 
visit  of  the  king,  which  the  regent  took  care  to  have 
widely  circulated,  was  also  of  great  service  to  her  in  this 
matter ;  many  who  could  not  augur  much  good  to  them- 
selves from  the  royal  presence  did  not  hesitate  to  accept 
a  pardon,  whicli,  perhaps,  for  what  they  could  tell,  was 
offered  them  for  the  last  time.  Among  those  who  thus 
received  private  letters  were  Egmont  and  Prince  of 
Orange.  Both  had  complained  to  the  king  of  the  evil 
reports  with  which  designing  persons  in  Spain  had  labored 
to  brand  their  names,  and  to  throw  suspicion  on  their 
motives  and  intentions;  Egmont,  in  particular,  with  the 
honest  simplicity  which  was  peculiar  to  his  character,  had 
asked  tlie  monarch  only  to  point  out  to  him  what  he  most 
desired,  to  determine  the  particular  action  by  which  his 
favor  could  be  best  obtained  and  zeal  in  his  service 
evinced,  and  it  should,  he  assured  him,  be  done.  The 
king  in  reply  caused  the  president.  Von  Tyssenacque,  to 
tell'him  that  he  could  do  nothing  better  to  refute  his 
traducers  than  to  show  perfect  submission  to  the  royal 
orders,  which  were  so  clearly  and  precisely  drawn  up, 
that  no  further  exposition  of  them  was  required,  nor  any 
particular  instruction.  It  was  the  sovereign's  part  to 
deliberate,  to  examine,  and  to  decide;  unconditionally  to 
obey  was  the  duty  of  the  subject ;  the  honor  of  the  latter 
consisted  in  his  obedence.  It  did  not  become  a  member 
to  hold  itself  wiser  than  the  head.  He  was  assuredly  to  be 
blamed  for  not  liaving  done  his  utmost  to  curb  the  unruli- 
ness  of  his  sectarians;  but  it  was  even  yet  in  his  power 
to  make  up  for  past  negligence  by  at  least  maintaining 
peace  and  order  until  the  actual  arrival  of  the  king.  In 
thus  punishing  Count  Egmont  with  reproofs  like  a  dis- 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        209 

obedient  child,  the  king  treated  him  in  accordance  with 
Avhat  he  knew  of  his  character ;  with  his  friend  he  found 
it  necessary  to  call  in  the  aid  of  artifice  and  deceit. 
Orange,  too,  in  his  letter,  had  alluded  to  the  suspicions 
which  the  king  entertained  of  his  loyalty  and  attach- 
ment, but  not,  like  Egmont,  in  the  vain  hope  of  removing 
them  ;  for  this  he  had  long  given  up  ;  but  in  order  to 
pass  from  these  complaints  to  a  request  for  permission  to 
resign  his  offices.  He  had  already  frequently  made  this 
request  to  the  regent,  but  had  always  received  from  her 
a  refusal,  accompanied  with  the  strongest  assurance  of 
her  regai'd.  The  king  also,  to  whom  he  now  at  last 
addressed  a  direct  application,  returned  him  the  same 
answer,  graced  with  similar  strong  assurances  of  his 
satisfaction  and  gratitude.  In  particular  he  expressed 
the  high  satisfaction  he  entertained  of  his  services,  which 
lie  had  lately  rendered  the  crown  in  Antwerp,  and 
lamented  deeply  that  the  private  affairs  of  the  prince 
(which  the  latter  had  made  his  chief  plea  for  demanding 
his  dismissal)  should  have  fallen  into  such  disoi-der ;  but 
ended  with  the  declaration  that  it  was  impossible  for  him 
to  dispense  with  his  valuable  services  at  a  crisis  which 
demanded  the  increase,  rather  than  diminution,  of  his 
good  and  honest  servants.  He  had  thouglit,  he  added, 
that  the  prince  entertained  a  better  opinion  of  him  than 
to  suppose  him  capable  of  giving  credit  to  the  idle  talk 
of  certain  persons,  who  were  friends  neither  to  the  prince 
nor  to  himself.  But,  at  the  same  time,  to  give  him  a 
proof  of  his  sincerity,  he  complained  to  him  in  confi- 
dence of  his  brother,  the  Count  of  Nassau,  pretended  to 
ask  his  advice  in  the  matter,  and  finally  expressed  a  wish 
to  have  the  count  removed  for  a  period  from  the  Nether- 
lands. 

But  Philip  had  here  to  do  with  a  head  which  in  cun- 
ning was  superior  to  his  own.  The  Prince  of  Orange 
had  for  a  long  time  held  watch  over  him  and  his  privy 
council  in  Madrid  and  Segovia,  through  a  host  of  spies, 
who  reported  to  him  everything  of  importance  that  was 
transacted  there.  The  court  of  this  most  secret  of  all 
despots  had  become  accessible  to  his  intriguing  spirit  and 
his  money ;  in  this  manner  he  had  gained  possession  of 


210  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

several  autograph  letters  of  the  regent,  which  she  had 
secretly  written  to  Madrid,  and  had  caused  copies  to  be 
circulated  in  triumpli  in  Brussels,  and  in  a  measure  nnder 
her  own  eyes,  insomuch  that  she  saw  witli  astonishment 
in  everybody's  hands  what  she  thought  was  preserved 
with  so  much  care,  and  entreated  the  king  for  the  future 
to  destroy  her  despatches  immediately  they  were  read. 
William's  vigilance  did  not  confine  itself  simjjly  to  the 
court  of  Spain ;  he  had  spies  in  France,  and  even  at  more 
distant  courts.  He  is  also  charged  with  not  being  over- 
scrupulous as  to  the  means  by  which  he  acquired  his 
intelligence.  But  the  most  important  disclosure  was 
made  by  an  intercepted  letter  of  the  Spanish  ambassador 
in  France,  Francis  Von  Alava,  to  the  duchess,  in  which 
the  former  descanted  on  the  fair  opportunity  which  was 
now  afforded  to  the  king,  through  the  guilt  of  the  Neth- 
erlandish people,  of  establishing  an  arbitrary  power  in 
that  country.  He  therefore  advised  her  to  deceive  the 
nobles  by  the  very  arts  which  they  had  hitherto  employed 
against  herself,  and  to  secure  them  through  smooth  words 
and  an  obliging  behavior.  The  king,  he  concluded,  who 
knew  the  nobles  to  be  the  hidden  springs  of  all  the  pre- 
vious troiables,  would  take  good  care  to  lay  hands  upon 
them  at  the  first  favorable  opportunity,  as  well  as  the 
two  whom  he  had  already  in  Spain ;  and  did  not  mean 
to  let  them  go  again,  having  sworn  to  make  an  example 
in  them  which  should  horrtfy  tlie  whole  of  Christeridom, 
even  if  it  should  cost  him  his  hereditary  dominions. 
This  piece  of  evil  news  w^as  strongly  coiToborated  by  the 
letters  which  Bergen  and  Montigny  wrote  from  Spain, 
and  in  which  they  bitterly  complained  of  the  contempt- 
uous behavior  of  the  grandees  and  the  altered  deportment 
of  the  monarch  towards  them ;  and  the  Prince  of  Orange 
-was  noAv  fully  sensible  what  he  had  to  expect  from  the 
fair  promises  of  the  king. 

The  letter  of  the  minister,  Alava,  together  with  some 
others  from  Spain,  which  gave  a  circumstantial  account  of 
the  approaching  warlike  visit  of  the  king,  and  of  his  evil 
intentions  against  the  nobles,  was  laid  by  the  prince  be- 
fore his  brother.  Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  Counts  Egmont, 
Horn,  and   Ilogstratcn,  at   a   meeting  at  Dendermonde 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        211 

in  Flanders,  whitlier  these  five  knights  had  repaired 
to  confer  on  the  measures  necessary  for  their  secu- 
rity. Count  Louis,  who  listened  only  to  his  feelings 
of  indignation,  foolhardily  maintained  that  they  ought, 
without  loss  of  time,  to  take  up  arms  and  seize  some 
strongholds.  That  they  ought  at  all  risks  to  prevent 
the  king's  armed  entrance  into  the  provinces.  That 
they  should  endeavor  to  prevail  on  the  Swiss,  the  Prot- 
estant princes  of  Germany,  and  the  Huguenots  to  arm 
and  obstruct  his  passage  through  their  territories;  and 
if,  notwithstanding,  he  should  force  his  way  through 
these  impediments,  that  the  Flemings  should  meet  him 
with  an  army  on  the  frontiers.  He  would  take  upon 
himself  to  negotiate  a  defensive  alliance  in  France,  in 
Switzerland,  and  in  Germany,  and  to  raise  in  the  latter 
empire  four  thousand  horse,  together  with  a  proportion- 
ate body  of  infantry.  Pretexts  would  not  be  wanting 
for  collecting  the  requisite  supplies  of  money,  and  the 
merchants  of  the  reformed  sect  would,  he  felt  assured, 
not  fail  them.  But  William,  more  cautious  and  more 
wise,  declared  himself  against  this  proposal,  which,  in  the 
execution,  would  be  exijosed  to  numberless  difficulties, 
and  had  as  yet  nothing  to  justify  it.  The  Inquisition, 
he  represented,  was  in  fact  abolished,  the  edicts  were 
nearly  sunk  into  oblivion,  and  a  fair  degree  of  religious 
liberty  accorded.  Hitherto,  therefore,  there  existed 
no  valid  or  adequate  excuse  for  adopting  this  hostile 
method ;  he  did  not  doubt,  however,  that  one  would  be 
presented  to  them  before  long,  and  in  good  time  for 
preparation.  His  own  opinion  consequently  was  that 
they  should  await  this  opportunity  with  patience,  and  in 
the  meanwhile  still  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon  everything, 
and  contrive  to  give  the  people  a  hint  of  the  threatened 
dano-cr,  that  they  might  be  ready  to  act  if  circumstances 
should  call  for  their  co-operation.  If  all  present  had 
assented  to  the  opinion  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  there  is 
no  doubt  but  so  powerful  a  league,  formidable  both  by 
the  influence  and  the  high  character  of  its  members, 
would  have  opposed  obstacles  to  the  designs  of  the  king 
which  would  have  compelled  him  to  abandon  thena  en- 
tirely.    But  the  determination  of  the  assembled  knights 


212        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

was  mucli  shaken  by  the  declaration  with  which  Count 
E<^inont  surprised  them.  "Rather,"  said  he,  "may  all 
tluit  is  evil  befall  me  than  that  I  should  tempt  fortune  so 
rashly.  The  idle  talk  of  the  Spaniard,  Alava,  does  not 
inove  ine;  how  should  such  a  person  be  able  to  read  the 
mind  of  a  sovereign  so  reserved  as  Philip,  and  to  decipher 
his  secrets?  The  intelligence  which  Montigny  gives  us 
"•oes  to  prove  nothing  more  than  that  the  king  has  a  very 
doubtful  opinion  of  our  zeal  for  his  service;  and  believes 
he  has  cause  to  distrust  our  loyalty;  and  for  this  I  for 
my  part  must  confess  that  we  have  given  him  only  too 
much  cause.  And  it  is  my  serious  purpose,  by  redoubling 
ray  zeal,  to  regain  his  good  opinion,  and  by  my  future 
behavior  to  remove,  if  possible,  the  distrust  which  my 
actions  have  hitherto  excited.  How  could  I  tear  myself 
from  the  arms  of  my  numerous  and  dependent  family  to 
wander  as  an  exile  at  foreign  courts,  a  burden  to  every 
one  who  received  me,  the  slave  of  every  one  who  conde- 
scended to  assist  me,  a  servant  of  foreigners,  in  order  to 
escape  a  slight  degree  of  constraint  at  home?  Never 
can  the  monarch  act  unkindly  towards  a  servant  who  Avas 
once  beloved  and  dear  to  him,  and  who  has  established  a 
well-grounded  claim  to  his  gratitude.  Never  shall  I  be 
persuaded  that  he  Avho  has  expressed  such  favorable,  such 
gracious  sentiments  towards  his  Belgian  subjects,  and 
with  his  own  mouth  gave  me  such  emphatic,  such  solemn 
assurances,  can  be  now  devising,  as  it  is  pretended,  such 
tyrannical  schemes  against  them.  If  we  do  but  restore 
to  the  country  its  former  repose,  chastise  the  rebels,  and 
re-establish  the  Roman  Catholic  form  of  worship  wher- 
ever it  has  been  violently  suppressed,  then,  believe  me, 
we  shall  hear  no  more  of  Spanish  troops.  This  is  the 
course  to  which  I  now  invite  you  all  by  my  counsel  and 
my  exami)le,  and  to  which  also  most  of  our  brethren 
already  incline,  I,  for  my  part,  fear  nothing  from  the 
anger  of  the  king.  My  conscience  acquits  me.  I  trust 
my  fate  and  fortunes  to  his  justice  and  clemency."  In 
vain  did  Nassau,  Horn,  and  Orange  labor  to  shake  his 
resolution,  and  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  near  and  inevitable 
danger.  Egmont  was  really  attached  to  the  king;  the 
royal    favors,  and   the   condescension  with  which   they 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS.  21 


o 


■vvere  conferred,  were  still  fresh  in  his  remembrance. 
The  attentions  with  which  the  monarch  had  distinguished 
him  above  all  his  friends  had  not  failed  of  their  effect. 
It  was  more  from  false  shame  than  from  party  spirit  that 
he  had  defended  the  cause  of  his  countrymen  against 
him;  more  from  temperament  and  natural  kindness  of 
heart  than  from  tried  principles  that  lie  had  opposed  the 
severe  measures  of  the  government.  The  love  of  the 
nation,  which  worshipped  him  as  its  idol,  carried  him 
away.  Too  vain  to  renounce  a  title  which  sounded  so 
agreeable,  he  had  been  compelled  to  do  something  to 
deserve  it;  but  a  single  look  at  his  family,  a  harsher  de- 
signation ajjjDlied  to  his  conduct,  a  dangerous  inference 
drawn  from  it,  the  mere  sound  of  crime,  terrified  him 
from  his  self-delusion,  and  scared  him  back  in  haste  and 
alarm  to  his  duty. 

Orange's  whole  plan  was  frustrated  by  Egmont's  with- 
drawal. The  latter  possessed  the  hearts  of  the  people 
and  the  confidence  of  the  army,  without  which  it  was 
utterly  impossible  to  undertake  anything  effective.  The 
rest  had  reckoned  with  so  much  certainty  upon  him  that 
his  unexpected  defection  rendered  the  whole  meeting 
nugatory.  They  therefore  separated  without  coming  to 
a  determination.  All  who  had  met  in  Dendermonde 
were  expected  in  the  council  of  state  in  Brussels ;  but 
Egmont  alone  repaired  thither.  The  regent  wished  to 
sift  him  on  the  subject  of  this  conference,  but  she  could 
extract  nothing  further  from  him  than  the  production  of 
the  letter  of  Alava,  of  Avhich  he  had  purposely  taken  a 
copy,  and  which,  with  the  bitterest  reproofs,  he  laid  before 
her.  At  first  she  changed  color  at  sight  of  it,  but  quickly 
recovering  herself,  she  boldly  declared  that  it  was  a  for- 
gery, "ilow  can  tliis  letter,"  she  said,  "really  come 
from  Alava,  when  I  miss  none  ?  And  would  he  who  pre- 
tends to  have  intercepted  it  have  spared  the  other  letters? 
Nay,  how  can  it  be  true,  when  not  a  single  ]>acket  has 
miscarried,  nor  a  single  despatch  failed  to  come  to  hand? 
How,  too,  can  it  be  thought  likely  that  the  king  would 
have  made  Alava  master  of  a  secret  which  he  has  not 
communicated  even  to  me?" 


214  REVOLT   OF   THE   NETHERLANDS. 


CIVIL   TTAK. 

1566.  Meanwhile  the  regent  hastened  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  schism  amongst  the  nobles  to  complete  the 
ruin  of  the  league,  which  was  already  tottering  under 
the  weight  of  internal  dissensions.  Without  loss  of  time 
she  drew  from  Germany  the  troops  which  Duke  Eric  of 
Brunswick  was  holding  in  readiness,  augmented  the  cav- 
alr} ,  and  raised  five  regiments  of  Walloons,  the  command 
of  which  she  gave  to  Counts  Mansfeld,  Megen,  Arem- 
berg,  and  others.  To  the  prince,  likewise,  she  felt  it 
necessary  to  confide  troops,  both  because  she  did  not 
wish,  by  withholding  them  pointedly,  to  insult  him,  and 
also  because  the  provinces  of  which  he  was  governor 
were  in  urgent  need  of  them;  but  she  took  the  precau- 
tion of  joining  with  him  a  Colonel  Waldenfinger,  who 
should  watch  all  his  steps  and  thwart  his  measures  if 
they  appeared  dangerous.  To  Count  Egmont  the  clergy 
in  Flanders  paid  a  contribution  of  forty  thousand  gold 
florins  for  the  maintenance  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  whom 
he  distributed  among  the  places  where  danger  was  most 
apprehended.  Every  governor  was  ordered  to  increase 
his  military  force,  and  to  provide  himself  with  ammuni- 
tion. These  energetic  preparations,  which  were  making 
in  all  places,  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  measures  which  the 
regent  would  adopt  in  future.  Conscious  of  her  superior 
force,  and  certain  of  this  important  support,  she  now 
ventured  to  change  her  tone,  and  to  employ  quite  another 
language  with  the  rebels.  She  began  to  put  the  most 
arbitrary  interpretation  on  the  concessions  which,  through 
fear  arid  necessity,  she  had  made  to  the  Protestants,  and 
to  restrict  all  the  liberties  which  she  had  tacitly  granted 
them  to  the  mere  permission  of  their  preaching.  All 
other  religious  exercises  and  rites,  which  yet  appeared  to 
be  involved  in  the  former  privilege,  were  by  new  edicts 
expressly  forbidden,  and  all  offenders  in  such  matters 
were  to  be  proceeded  against  as  traitors.  The  Prot- 
estants Avere  permitted  to  think  differently  from  the 
ruling  church  ui)on  the  sacrament,  but  to  receive  it  dif- 
ferently was  a  crime;   baptism,  marriage,   burial,  after 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        215 

their  fashion,  were  prohibited  under  pain  of  death.  It 
was  a  cruel  mockery  to  allow  them  their  religion,  and 
forbid  the  exercise  of  it ;  but  this  mean  artifice  of  the 
regent  to  escape  from  the  obligation  of  her  pledged 
word  was  worthy  of  the  pusillanimity  with  which  she 
had  submitted  to  its  being  extorted  from  her.  She  took 
advantage  of  the  most  trifling  innovations  and  the  small- 
est excesses  to  interrupt  the  preachings ;  and  some  of  the 
preachers,  under  the  charge  of  having  j^erformed  their 
office  in  places  not  appointed  to  them,  were  brought  to 
trial,  condemned,  and  executed.  On  more  than  one 
occasion  the  regent  publicly  declared  that  the  confed- 
erates had  taken  unfair  advantage  of  her  fears,  and  that 
she  did  not  feel  herself  bound  by  an  engagement  which 
had  been  extorted  from  her  by  threats. 

Of  all  the  Belgian  towns  which  had  participated  in  the 
insurrection  of  the  Iconoclasts  none  had  caused  the  reijent 
so  much  alarm  as  the  town  of  Valenciennes,  in  Hainault. 
In  no  other  was  the  party  of  the  Calvin ists  so  powerful, 
and  the  spirit  of  rebellion  for  which  the  province  of 
Hainault  had  always  made  itself  conspicuous,  seemed  to 
dwell  here  as  in  its  native  place.  The  propinquity  of 
France,  to  which,  as  well  by  language  as  by  manners, 
this  town  appeared  to  belong,  rather  than  to  tlie  Xether- 
lands,  had  from  the  first  led  to  its  being  governed  Avith 
great  mildness  and  forbearance,  which,  however,  only 
taught  it  to  feel  its  own  importance.  At  tlie  last  out- 
break of  the  church-desecrators  it  had  been  on  the  point 
of  surrendering  to  the  Huguenots,  with  M'hom  it  main- 
tained tlie  closest  understanding.  The  slightest  excite- 
ment might  renew  this  danger.  On  this  account  Valen- 
ciennes was  the  first  town  to  which  the  regent  proposed, 
as  soon  as  should  be  in  her  power,  to  send  a  strong  gar- 
rison. Pliilip  of  Noircarmes,  Baron  of  St.  Aldegonde, 
Governor  of  Hainault  in  the  place  of  the  absent  Marquis 
of  Bergen,  had  received  this  charge,  and  nov/  appeared 
at  the  head  of  an  army  before  its  walls.  Deputies  came 
to  meet  him  on  the  part  of  the  magistrate  from  the  town, 
to  petition  against  the  garrison,  because  the  Protestant 
citizens,  who  were  the  superior  number,  had  declared 
against  it.     Noircarmes  acquainted  them  with  the  will  of 


216       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

the  regent,  and  gave  them  the  choice  between  the  garri- 
son or  a  siege.  He  assured  them  that  not  more  than 
four  squadrons  of  horse  and  six  companies  of  foot  should 
be  imposed  upon  the  town ;  and  for  this  he  would  give 
them  his  son  as  a  hostage.  These  terms  were  laid  before 
the  magistrate,  who,  for  his  part,  was  much  inclined  to 
accept  them.  But  Peregrine  Le  Grange,  the  preacher, 
and  the  idol  of  the  populace,  to  whom  it  was  of  vital  im- 
portance to  prevent  a  submission  of  which  he  would  in- 
evitably become  the  victim,  appeared  at  the  head  of  his 
followers,  and  by  his  powerful  eloquence  excited  the 
peo])le  to  reject  the  conditions.  When  their  answer  was 
brought  to  Noircarmes,  contrary  to  all  law  of  nations,  he 
caused  the  messengers  to  be  placed  in  irons,  and  carried 
them  away  with  him  as  prisoners ;  he  was,  however,  by 
express  command  of  the  regent,  compelled  to  set  them 
free  again.  The  regent,  instructed  by  secret  orders  from 
Madrid  to  exercise  as  much  forbearance  as  2:)0ssible, 
caused  the  town  to  be  repeatedly  summoned  to  receive 
the  garrison ;  when,  however,  it  obstinately  persisted  in 
its  refusal,  it  was  declared  by  public  edict  to  be  in  rebel- 
lion, and  Noircarmes  was  authorized  to  commence  the 
siege  in  form.  The  other  provinces  were  forbidden  to 
assist  this  rebellious  town  with  advice,  money,  or  arms. 
All  the  property  contained  in  it  was  confiscated.  In 
order  to  let  it  see  the  war  before  it  began  in  earnest,  and 
to  give  it  time  for  rational  reflection,  Noircarmes  drew 
together  troops  from  all  Hainault  and  Cambray  (1566), 
took  possession  of  St.  Amant,  and  placed  garrisons  in  all 
adjacent  places. 

The  line  of  conduct  ado])ted  towards  Valenciennes  al- 
lowed the  other  towns  which  were  similarly  situated  to 
infer  the  fate  which  was  intended  for  them  also,  and  at 
once  i)ut  the  whole  league  in  motion.  An  army  of  the 
Gueux,  between  three  thousand  and  four  thousand  strong, 
Avhicli  was  hastily  collected  from  the  rabble  of  fugitives, 
and  the  remaining  bands  of  the  Iconoclasts,  appeared  in 
the  territories  of  Tournay  and  Lille,  in  order  to  secure 
these  two  towns,  and  to  annoy  the  enemy  at  Valenciennes. 
The  commandant  of  Lille  was  fortunate  enough  to  main- 
tain that  place  by  routing  a  detachment  of  this   army, 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       217 

which,  in  concert  with  the  Protestant  inhabitants,  had 
made  an  attempt  to  get  possession  of  it.  At  the  same 
time  the  army  of  the  Gueux,  which  was  uselessly  wasting 
its  time  at  Lannoy,  was  surprised  by  Noircarmes  and 
almost  entirely  annihilated.  The  few  who  with  desperate 
courage  forced  their  way  through  the  enemy,  threw  them- 
selves into  tlie  town  of  Tournay,  Avhich  was  immediately 
summoned  by  the  victor  to  open  its  gates  and  admit  a 
garrison.  Its  prompt  obedience  obtained  for  it  a  milder 
fate.  Noircarmes  contented  himself  with  abolishing  the 
Protestant  consistory,  banishing  the  preachers,  punishing 
the  leaders  of  the  rebels,  and  again  re-establishing  the 
Roman  Catholic  worship,  which  lie  found  almost  entirely 
suppressed.  After  giving  it  a  steadfast  Roman  Catholic 
as  governor,  and  leaving  in  it  a  sufficient  garrison,  he 
again  returned  with  his  victorious  army  to  Valenciennes 
to  press  the  siege. 

This  town,  confident  in  its  strength,  actively  prepared 
for  defence,  firmly  resolved  to  allow  things  to  come  to 
extremes  before  it  surrendered.     The  inhabitants  had  not 
neglected  to  furnish    themselves   with   ammunition   and 
provisions  for  a  long   siege ;  all  who  could  carry  arms 
(the  very  artisans  not  excepted),  became  soldiers;   the 
houses  before  the  town,  and  especially  the  cloisters,  were 
pulled  down,  that  the  besiegers  might  not  avail  them- 
selves of  them  to  cover  their  attack.     The  few  adherents 
of   the    crown,  awed   by  the  multitude,  were  silent ;  no 
Roman  Catholic  ventured  to  stir  himself.     Anarchy  and 
rebellion   had   taken   the    place    of   good   order,  and  the 
fanaticism  of  a  foolhardy  priest  gave  laws  instead  of  the 
legal    dispensers    of   justice.     The  male   population  was 
numerous,  their  courage  confirmed  by  despair,  their  con- 
fidence unbounded  that  the  siege  would  be  raised,  while 
their  hatred  against  the  Roman    Catholic  religion  was 
excited  to  the^highest  pitch.     Many   had   no  mercy  to 
expect;  all  abhorred  the  general  thraldom  of  an  imperious 
garrison.     Noircarmes,  whose  army  had  become  formida- 
ble through  the  reinforcements  which  streamed  to  it  from 
all  quarters,  and  was  abundantly  furnished  with   all  the 
requisites  for  a  long  blockade,  once  more  attempted  to 
prevail  on  the  town  by  gentle  means,  but  in  vain.     At 


218        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

last  he  caused  the  trenches  to  be  opened  and  prepared  to 
invest  the  place. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  position  of  the  Protestants  had 
jrrown  as  much  worse  as  that  of  the  regent  had  improved. 
The  league  of  the  nobles  had  gradually  melted  away  to  a 
third  of^its  original  number.  Some  of  its  most  important 
defenders,  Count  Egmont,  for  instance,  had  gone  over  to 
the  kino- ;  the  pecuinary  contributions  which  had  been  so 
confidently  reckoned  upon  came  in  but  slowly  and  scant- 
ily ;  the  zeal  of  the  party  began  perceptibly  to  cool,  and 
tlie  close  of  the  fine  season  made  it  necessary  to  discon- 
tinue the  public  preachings,  which,  up  to  this  time,  had 
been  continued.  Tliese  and  other  reasons  combined  in- 
duced the  declining  party  to  moderate  its  demands,  and  to 
tiy  every  legal  expedient  before  it  proceeded  to  extrem- 
ities. In  a  general  synod  of  the  Protestants,  which  was 
held  for  this  object  in  Antwerp,  and  which  was  also  at- 
tended by  some  of  the  confederates,  it  was  resolved  to 
send  deputies  to  the  regent  to  remonstrate  with  her  upon 
this  breach  of  faith,  and  to  remind  her  of  her  compact. 
Brederode  undertook  this  office,  but  was  obliged  to  sub- 
mit to  a  harsh  and  disgraceful  rebuff,  and  was  shut  out 
of  Brussels.  He  had  now  recourse  to  a  written  memorial, 
in  which,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  league,  he  complained 
that  the  duchess  had,  by  violating  her  word,  falsified  in 
sight  of  all  the  Protestants  the  security  given  by  the 
league,  in  reliance  on  which  all  of  them  had  laid  down 
their  arms;  that  by  her  insincerity  she  had  undone  all 
the  good  which  the  confederates  had  labored  to  effect ; 
that  she  had  sought  to  degrade  the  league  in  the  eyes  of 
tlie  people,  had  excited  discord  among  its  members,  and 
had  even  caused  many  of  them  to  be  persecuted  as 
criminals.  He  called  upon  her  to  recall  her  late  ordi- 
nances, which  deprived  the  Protestants  of  the  free  exer- 
cise of  their  religion,  but  aliove  all  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Valenciennes,  to  disband  the  troops  newly  enlisted,  and 
ended  by  assuring  her  that  on  these  conditions  and  these 
alone  tlie  league  would  be  responsible  for  the  general 
tranquillity. 

To  this  the  regeiit  replied  in  a  tone  very  different  from 
her  previous  moderation.     "  Who  these  confederates  are 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        219 

who  address  me  in  this  memorial  is,  indeed,  a  mystery  to 
me.  The  confederates  with  whom  I  had  formerly  to  do, 
for  ought  I  know  to  the  contrary,  have  dispersed.  All  at 
least  cannot  participate  in  this  statement  of  grievances, 
for  I  myself  know  of  many,  Avho,  satisfied  in  all  their 
demands,  have  retm-ned  to  their  duty.  But  still,  whoever 
be  may  be,  who  without  authority  and  right,  and  without 
name  addresses  me,  he  has  at  least  given  a  very  false 
interpretation  to  my  word  if  he  asserts  that  I  guaranteed 
to  the  Protestants  complete  religious  liberty.  No  one 
can  be  ignorant  how  reluctantly  1  was  induced  to  permit 
the  preachings  in  the  places  where  they  had  sprung  up 
unauthorized,  and  this  surely  cannot  be  counted  for  a 
concession  of  freedom  in  religion.  Is  it  likely  that  I 
should  have  entertained  the  idea  of  protecting  these 
illegal  consistories,  of  tolerating  this  state  within  a  state  ? 
Could  I  forget  myself  so  far  as  to  grant  the  sanction  of 
law  to  an  objectionable  sect;  to  overturn  all  order  in  the 
church  and  in  the  state,  and  abominably  to  blaspheme  my 
holy  religion  ?  Look  to  him  who  has  given  you  such  per- 
mission, but  you  must  not  argue  with  me.  You  accuse 
me  of  having  violated  the  agreement  which  gave  you 
impunity  and  security.  The  past  I  am  willing  to  look 
over,  but  not  what  may  be  done  in  future.  No  ad- 
vantage was  to  be  taken  of  you  on  account  of  the  petition 
of  last  April,  and  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  nothing  of 
the  kind  has  as  yet  been  done ;  but  whoever  again  offends 
in  the  same  way  against  the  majesty  of  the  king  must  be 
ready  to  bear  the  consequences  of  his  crime.  In  fine, 
how  can  you  presume  to  remind  me  of  an  agreement 
which  you  have  been  the  first  to  break  ?  At  whose  insti- 
gation were  the  churches  plundered,  the  images  of  the 
saints  thrown  down,  and  the  towns  hurried  into  rebel- 
lion? Who  formed  alliances  with  foregn  powers,  set  on 
foot  illegal  enlistments,  and  collected  unlawful  taxes  from 
the  subjects  of  the  king?  These  are  the  reasons  which 
have  impelled  me  to  draw  together  my  troops,  and  to  in- 
crease the  severity  of  tli.e  edicts.  Whoever  now  asks  me 
to  lay  down  my  arms  cannot  mean  well  to  his  country  or 
his  king,  and  if  ye  value  your  own  lives,  look  to  it  that 
your  own  actions  acquit  you,  instead  of  judging  mine." 


220       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

All  the  hopes  which  the  confederates  might  have  enter- 
tained of  an  amicable  adjustment  sank  with  this  high- 
toned  declaration.  Without  being  confident  of  possessing 
powerful  support,  the  regent  would  not,  they  argued,  em- 
ploy such  language.  An  army  was  in  the  field,  the  enemy 
was  before  Valenciennes,  the  members  Avho  were  the  Jjeart 
of  the  league  had  abandoned  it,  and  the  regent  required 
unconditional  submission.  Their  cause  was  now  so  bad 
that  open  resistance  could  not  make  it  worse.  If  they 
gave  themselves  up  defenceless  into  the  hands  of  their 
exasperated  sovereign  their  fate  was  certain ;  an  appeal 
to  arms  could  at  least  make  it  a  matter  of  doubt  ;  they, 
therefore,  chose  the  latter,  and  began  seriously  to  take 
steps  for  their  defence.  In  order  to  insure  the  assistance 
of  the  German  Protestants,  Louis  of  Nassau  attempted 
to  persuade  the  towns  of  Amsterdam,  Antwerp,  Tournay, 
and  Valenciennes  to  adopt  the  confession  of  Augsburg, 
and  in  this  manner  to  seal  their  alliance  with  a  religious 
union.  But  the  proposition  was  not  successful,  because 
the  hatred  of  the  Calvinists  to  the  Lutherans  exceeded, 
if  possible,  that  which  they  bore  to  popery.  Nassau  also 
began  in  earnest  to  negotiate  for  supplies  from  France, 
the  Palatinate,  and  Saxony.  The  Count  of  Bergen  forti- 
fied his  castles  ;  Brederode  threw  himself  with  a  small 
force  into  his  strong  town  of  Vianne  on  the  Leek,  over 
which  he  claimed  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  which  he 
hastily  placed  in  a  state  of  defense,  and  there  awaited  a 
reinforcement  from  the  league,  and  the  issue  of  Nassua's 
negotiations.  The  flag  of  war  was  now  unfurled,  every- 
where the  drum  was  heard  to  beat ;  in  all  parts  troops 
were  seen  on  the  march,  contributions  collected,  and 
soldiers  enlisted.  The  agents  of  each  party  often  met  in 
the  same  place,  and  hardly  had  the  collectors  and  re- 
cruiting oflicers  of  the  regent  quitted  a  town  when  it  had 
to  endure  a  similar  visit  from  the  agents  of  the  league. 

From  Valenciennes  the  regent  directed  her  attention 
to  Herzogenbusch,  where  the  Iconoclasts  had  lately  com- 
mitted fresh  excesses,  and  the  party  of  the  Protestants 
had  gained  a  great  accession  of  sti-ength.  In  order  to 
prevail  on  the  citizens  peaceably  to  receive  a  garrison, 
she  sent  thither,  as  ambassador,  the  Chancellor  Scheiff, 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        221 

from  Brabant,  with  counsellor  Merode  of  Peterslieira, 
whom  she  appointed  governor  of  the  town  ;  they  were 
instructed  to  secure  the  place  by  judicious  means,  and  to 
exact  from  the  citizens  a  new  oath  of  allegiance.  At  the 
same  time  the  Count  of  Megen,  who  was  in  the  neighbor- 
hood with  a  body  of  troops,  was  ordered  to  support  tlie 
two  envoys  in  effecting  their  commission,  and  to  afford 
the  means  of  throwing  in  a  garrison  immediately.  But 
Brederode,  who  obtained  information  of  these  movements 
in  Viane,  liad  already  sent  thither  one  of  his  creatures,  a 
certain  Anton  von  Bomberg,  a  hot  Calvinist,  but  also 
a  brave  soldier,  in  order  to  raise  the  courage  of  his  party, 
and  to  frustrate  the  designs  of  the  regent.  This  Bomberg 
succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  the  letters  which  the 
chancellor  brought  with  him  from  the  duchess,  and  con- 
trived  to  substitute  in  their  jjlace  counterfeit  ones,  which, 
by  their  harsh  and  imperious  language,  were  calculated  to 
exasperate  the  minds  of  the  citizens.  At  the  same  time 
he  attempted  to  throw  suspicion  on  both  the  ambassadors 
of  the  duchess  as  having  evil  designs  upon  the  town.  In 
this  he  succeeded  so  well  with  the  mob  that  in  their  mad 
fury  they  even  laid  hands  on  the  ambassadors  and  placed 
them  in  confinement.  He  himself,  at  the  head  of  eight 
thousand  men,  who  had  adopted  him  as  their  leader,  ad- 
vanced ao^ainst  the  Count  of  Megen,  who  was  moving^  in 
order  of  battle,  and  gave  him  so  warm  a  reception,  Avith 
some  heavy  artillery,  that  he  was  compelled  to  retire 
without  accomplishing  his  object.  The  regent  now  sent 
an  officer  of  justice  to  demand  the  release  of  her  ambas- 
sadors, and  in  case  of  refusal  to  threaten  the  place  with 
siege ;  but  Bomberg  with  his  party  surrounded  the  town 
hall  and  forced  the  magistrate  to  deliver  to  him  the  key 
of  the  town.  The  messenger  of  the  regent  was  ridiculed 
and  dismissed,  and  an  answer  sent  through  him  that  the 
treatment  of  the  prisoners  would  depend  upon  Brede- 
rode's  orders.  The  herald,  wdio  was  remaining  outside 
before  the  town,  now  appeared  to  declare  war  against  her, 
which,  however,  the  chancellor  prevented. 

After  his  futile  attempt  on  Herzogenbuseh  the  Count 
of  Megen  threw  himself  into  Utrecht  in  order  to  prevent 
the  execution  of  a  design  which  Count  Brederode  had 


222        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 


formed  against  that  town.  As  it  had  suffered  much 
from  tlie  army  of  the  confederates,  which  was_  encamped 
in  its  immediate  neighborhood,  near  Viane,  it  received 
Megen  witli  open  arms  as  its  protector,  and  conformed 
to  all  the  alterations  which  he  made  in  the  religious 
worship.  Upon  this  he  immediately  caused  a  redoubt  to 
be  thrown  up  on  the  bank  of  the  Leek,  which  would 
command  Viane.  Brederode,  not  disposed  to  await  his 
attack,  quitted  that  rendezvous  Avith  the  best  part  of  his 
army  and  hastened  to  Amsterdam. 

However  unprofitably  the  Prince  of  Orange  appeared 
to  be  losing  his  time  in  Antwerp  during  these  operations 
he  was,  nevertheless,  busily  employed.  At  his  instigation 
the  league  had  commenced  recruiting,  and  Brederode 
had  fortified  his  castles,  for  which  purpose  he  himself 
presented  him  with  three  cannons  which  he  had  had  cast 
at  Utrecht.  His  eye  watched  all  the  movements  of  the 
court,  and  he  kept  the  league  warned  of  the  towns  which 
were  next  menaced  with  attack.  But  his  chief  object 
appeared  to  be  to  get  possession  of  the  principal  places 
in  the  districts  under  his  own  government,  to  which  end 
he  with  all  his  power  secretly  assisted  Brederode's  plans 
against  Utrecht  and  Amsterdam.  The  most  important 
l^lace  was  the  Island  of  Walcheren,  where  the  king  was 
expected  to  land  ;  and  he  now  planned  a  scheme  for  the 
surprise  of  this  place,  the  conduct  of  which  was  entrusted 
to  one  of  the  confederate  nobles,  an  intimate  friend  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  John  of  Marnix,  Baron  of  Thoulouse, 
and  brother  of  Philip  of  Aldegonde. 

1567.  Tlioulouse  maintained  a  secret  understanding 
Avith  the  late  mayor  of  Middleburg,  Peter  Haak,  by 
Avhich  he  ex})ected  to  gain  an  opportunity  of  throwing  a 
garrison  into  Middleburg  and  Flushing.  The  recruiting, 
liowever,  for  this  undertaking,  which  was  set  on  foot  in 
Antwerp,  could  not  be  carried  on  so  quietly  as  not  to 
attract  the  notice  of  the  magistrate.  In  order,  therefore, 
to  lull  the  suspicions  of  the  latter,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  promote  the  success  of  the  scheme,  the  prince  caused 
the  herald  by  public  proclamation  to  order  all  foreign 
soldiers  and  strangers  who  Avere  in  the  service  of  the 
state,  or  employed  in  other  business,  forthAvith  to  quit 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        223 

the  town.  He  might,  say  his  adversaries,  by  closing  the 
gates  have  easily  made  himself  master  of  all  these  sus- 
pected recruits ;  but  he  expelled  tliem  from  the  toAvn  in 
order  to  drive  them  the  more  quickly  to  the  place  of  their 
destination.  They  immediately  embarked  on  the  Scheldt, 
and  sailed  down  to  Kammekens  ;  as,  however,  a  market- 
vessel  of  Antwerp,  which  ran  into  Flushing  a  little  before 
them  had  given  warning  of  their  design  they  were  for- 
bidden to  enter  the  port.  They  found  the  same  difficulty 
at  Arnemuiden,  near  Middleburg,  although  the  Protest- 
ants in  that  place  exerted  themselves  to  raise  an  insur- 
rection in  their  favor.  Thoulouse,  therefore ,  without 
liaving  accomplished  anything,  put  about  his  ships  and 
sailed  back  down  the  Scheldt  as  far  as  Osterweel,  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  AntAverp,  where  he  disembarked 
his  people  and  encamped  on  the  shore,  with  the  hope  of 
getting  men  from  Antwerp,  and  also  in  order  to  revive 
by  his  presence  the  courage  of  his  party,  which  had  been 
cast  down  by  the  proceedings  of  the  magistrate.  By  the 
aid  of  the  Calvinistic  clergy,  who  recruited  for  him,  his 
little  army  increased  daily,  so  that  at  last  he  began  to  be 
formidable  to  the  Antwerpians,  whose  whole  territory  he 
laid  waste.  The  magistrate  was  for  attacking  him  here 
with  the  militia,  which,  however,  the  Prince  of  Orange 
successfully  opposed  by  the  pretext  that  it  would  not  be 
prudent  to  strip  the  town  of  soldiers. 

Meanwhile  the  regent  had  hastily  brought  together  a 
small  army  under  the  command  of  Philip  of  Launoy, 
which  moved  from  Brussels  to  Antwerp  by  forced 
marches.  At  the  same  time  Count  Megen  managed  to 
keep  the  army  of  the  Gueux  shut  np  and  employed  at 
Viane,  so  that  it  could  neither  hear  of  these  movements 
nor  hasten  to  the  assistance  of  its  confederates.  Launoy, 
on  his  ai-rival  attacked  by  surprise  the  dispersed  crowds, 
who,  little  expecting  an  enemy,  had  gone  out  to  plunder, 
and  destroyed  them  in  one  terrible  carnage.  Thoulouse 
threw  himself  with  the  small  remnant  of  his  troops  into  a 
country  house,  which  had  served  him  as  his  headquarters, 
and  for  a  long  time  defended  himself  with  the  courage  of 
despair,  until  Launoy,  finding  it  im2:)ossible  to  dislodge 
him,  set  fire  to  the  house.     The  few  who  escaj^ed   the 


224       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

flames  fell  on  the  swords  of  the  enemy  or  were  drowned 
m  the  Scheldt.  Thoiilouse  himself  preferred  to  perish  in 
the  flames  rather  than  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
This  victory,  which  swept  off  more  than  a  thousand  of 
the  enemy,  was  purcha'sed  by  the  conqueror  cheaply 
enough,  for  he  did  not  lose  more  than  two  men.  Three 
hundT-ed  of  the  leaguers  who  surrendered  were  cut  down 
without  mercy  on  the  spot,  as  a  sally  from  Antwerp  was 
momentarily  dreaded. 

Before  the  battle   actually  commenced  no  anticipation 
of  such  an  event  had  been  entertained  at  Antwerp.    The 
Prince  of  Orange,  who  had  got  early  information  of  it, 
had  taken  the  precaution  the  day  before  of  causing  the 
bridge  which  unites  the  town  with  Osterweel  to  be  de- 
stroyed, in  order,  as  he  gave  out,  to  prevent  the  Calvin ists 
within  the  town  going  out  to  join  tlie  army  of  Thoulouse. 
A  more  probable   motive  seems  to  have  been  a  fear  lest 
the  Catholics  should  attack  the  army  of  the  Gueux  gen- 
eral in  the  rear,  or  lest  Launoy  should    prove  victorious, 
and  try  to  force  his  way  into  the  town.     On  the  sanie 
pretext   the   gates    of   the   city   were   also    shut   by   his 
orders,  and  the  inhabitants,    who   did   not   comprehend 
the  meaning  of  all  these  movements,  fluctuated  between 
curiosity  and  alarm,  until    the   sound  of    artillery  from 
Osterweel   announced    to    them  what    there    was   going 
on.     In  clamorous  crowds  they  all  ran  to  the  walls  and 
ramparts,  from  which,  as  the  wind  drove  the  smoke  from 
the  contending  armies,  they   commanded  a  full  view  of 
the  whole  battle.     Both  armies  were  so  near  to  the  town 
that  they  could  discern  their    banners,  and  clearly  dis- 
tinguish the  voices   of  the  victors  and  the  vanquished. 
More  terrible  even  than  the  battle  itself  was  the  spectacle 
which  this  town  now  presented.     Each  of  the  conflicting 
armies  had  its  friends  and  its  enemies  on  the  wall.    All 
that  went  on  in  the  plain  roused  on  the  ramparts  exulta^ 
tion  or  dismay ;  on  the  issue  of  the  conflict  the  fate  of 
each  spectator  seemed    to  depend.     Every  movement  on 
the  field   could  be  read  in  the  faces  of  the  townsmen ; 
defeat  and  triumph,  the  terror  of  the  conquered,  and  the 
fury  of  the   conqueror.     Here  a  painful  but  idle  wish  to 
support  those  who  are  giving  way,  to  rally  those  who  fly; 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        225 

there  an  equally  futile  desire  to  overtake  them,  to  slay 
them,  to  extirpate  them.  Now  the  Gueux  fly,  and  ten 
thousand  men  rejoice;  Thoulouse's  last  place  and  refuge 
is  in  flames,  and  the  hopes  of  twenty  thousand  citizens 
are  consumed  with  liim. 

But  the  first  bewilderment  of  alarm  soon  gave  place  to 
a  frantic  desire  of  revenge.  Shrieking  aloud,  wringing 
her  hands  and  with  dishevelled  hair,  the  widow  of  the 
slain  general  rushed  amidst  the  crowds  to  implore  their 
pity  and  help.  Excited  by  their  favorite  preacher,  Her- 
mann, the  Calvinists  fly  to  arms,  detei'mined  to  avenge 
their  brethren,  or  to  perish  with  them  ;  without  reflection, 
without  plan  or  leader,  guided  by  nothing  but  their 
anguish,  their  delirium,  they  rush  to  the  Red  Gate  of  the 
city  which  leads  to  the  field  of  battle ;  but  there  is  no 
egress,  the  gate  is  shut  and  the  foremost  of  the  crowd 
recoil  on  tliose  that  follow.  Thousands  and  thousands 
collect  together,  a  dreadful  rush  is  made  to  the  Meer 
Bridge.  We  are  betrayed !  we  are  prisoners !  is  the 
general  cry.  Destruction  to  the  papists,  death  to  him 
who  has  betrayed  us  !  — a  sullen  murmur,  joortentous  of  a 
revolt,  runs  through  the  multitude.  They  begin  to  sus- 
pect that  all  that  has  taken  place  has  been  set  on  foot  by 
the  Roman  Catholics  to  destroy  the  Calvinists.  They  had 
slain  their  defenders,  and  they  would  now  fall  upon  the 
defenceless.  With  fatal  speed  this  suspicion  spreads 
through  the  whole  of  Antwerp.  Now  they  can,  they 
think,  understand  the  past,  and  they  fear  something  still 
worse  in  the  background ;  a  frightful  distrust  gains  pos- 
session of  every  mind.  Each  party  dreads  the  other; 
every  one  sees  an  enemy  in  his  neighbor;  the  mystery 
deepens  the  alarm  and  horror;  a  fearful  condition  for  a 
populous  town,  in  which  every  accidental  concourse  in- 
stantly becomes  tumult,  every  rumor  started  amongst 
them  becomes  a  fact,  every  small  spark  a  blazing  flume, 
and  by  the  force  of  numbers  and  collision  all  passions 
are  furiously  inflamed.  All  who  bore  the  name  of  Cal- 
vinists were  roused  by  this  report.  Fifteen  tliousand  of 
them  take  possession  of  the  Meer  Bridge,  and  plant  heavy 
artillery  upon  it,  wliich  they  had  taken  by  force  from  the 
arsenal;  the  same  tiling  also  happens  at  another  bridge; 


226        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

their  number  makes  them  formidable,  the  town  is  ip  their 
hands;  to  escape  an  imaginary  danger  they  bring  all 
Antwerp  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 

Immediately  on  the  commencement  of  the  tumult  the 
Prince  of  Orange  hastened  to  the  Meer  Bridge,  where, 
boldly  forcing  his  way  through  the  raging  crowd,  he  com- 
manded peace  and  entreated  to  be  heard.  At  the  other 
bridge  Count  Hogstraten,  accompanied  by  the  Burgo- 
master Strahlen,  made  the  same  attempt;  but  not  ])ossess- 
ing  a  sufficient  share  either  of  eloquence  or  of  popularity 
to  command  attention,  he  referred  the  tumultuous  crowd 
to  the  prince,  around  whom  all  Antwerp  now  furiously 
thronged.  The  gate,  he  endeavored  to  explain  to  them, 
was  shut  simply  to  keep  off  the  victor,  whoever  he  might 
be,  from  the  city,  which  Avould  otherwise  become  the  prey 
of  an  infuriated  soldiery.  In  vain !  the  frantic  people 
Avould  not  listen,  and  one  more  daring  than  the  rest  pre- 
sented his  musket  at  him,  calling  him  a  traitor.  With 
tumultuous  shouts  they  demanded  the  key  of  the  Red 
Gate,  which  he  was  ultimately  forced  to  deliver  into  the 
liands  of  the  preacher  Hermann.  But,  he  added  with 
happy  presence  of  mind,  they  must  take  heed  what  they 
were  doing ;  in  the  suburbs  six  hundred  of  the  enemy's 
horse  were  waiting  to  receive  them.  This  invention, 
suo-o-ested  by  the  emergency,  was  not  so  far  removed  from 
the  truth  as  its  author  perhaps  nnagmed  ;  tor  no  sooner 
had  the  victorous  general  perceived  the  commotion  in 
Antwerp  than  he  caused  his  whole  cavalry  to  mount  in 
the  hope  of  being  able,  under  favor  of  the  disturbance,  to 
break  into  the  town.  I,  at  least,  continued  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  shall  secure  my  own  safety  in  time,  and  he  who 
follows  my  example  "svill  save  himself  much  future  regret. 
These  words  opportunely  spoken  and  immediately  acted 
upon  had  their  effect.  Those  who  stood  nearest  followed 
him,  and  were  again  followed  by  the  next,  so  that  at  last 
the  few  who  had  already  hastened  out  of  the  city  when 
they  saw  no  one  coming  after  them  lost  the  desire  of 
coping  alone  with  the  six  liundred  horse.  All  accordingly 
returned  to  the  IMeer  Bridge,  where  they  posted  watches 
and  videttes,  and  the  night  was  passed  tumultuously 
under  arms. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        227 

The  town  of  Antwei-p  was  now  threatened  with  fearful 
bloodshed  and  pillage.  In  this  pressing  emergency- 
Orange  assembled  an  extraordinary  senate,  to  which  were 
summoned  all  the  best-disposed  citizens  of  the  four  na- 
tions. If  they  wished,  said  he,  to  repress  the  violence  of 
the  Calvinists  they  must  oppose  them  with  an  army 
strong  enough  and  pi'epared  to  meet  them.  It  was  there- 
fore resolved  to  arm  with  speed  the  Roman  Catholic  in- 
habitants of  the  town,  whether  natives,  Italians,  or  Span- 
iards, and,  if  possible,  to  induce  the  Lutherans  also  to  join 
them.  The  haughtiness  of  the  Calvinists,  who,  proud 
of  their  wealth  and  confident  in  their  numbers,  treated 
every  other  religious  party  with  contempt,  had  long  made 
the  Lutherans  their  enemies,  and  the  mutual  exasperation 
of  these  two  Protestant  churches  was  even  more  implaca- 
ble than  their  common  hatred  of  the  dommant  church. 
This  jealousy  the  magistrate  had  turned  to  advantage,  by 
making  use  of  one  party  to  curb  the  other,  and  had  thus 
contrived  to  keep  the  Calvinists  in  check,  who,  from  their 
numbers  and  insolence,  were  most  to  be  feared.  With 
this  view,  he  had  tacitly  taken  into  his  protection  the 
Lutherans,  as  the  weaker  and  more  peaceable  party, 
having  moreover  invited  for  them,  from  Germany,  spirit- 
ual teachers,  who,  by  controversial  sermons,  might  keep 
up  tlie  mutual  hatred  of  the  two  bodies.  He  encouraged 
the  Lutherans  in  the  vain  idea  that  the  king  thought 
more  favorably  of  their  religious  creed  than  that  of  the 
Calvinists,  and  exhorted  them  to  be  careful  how  they 
damaged  their  good  cause  by  any  understanding  Avith  the 
latter.  It  was  not,  therefore,  difficult  to  bring  about,  for 
the  moment,  a  union  with  the  Roman  Catholics  and  tlie 
Lutherans,  as  its  object  was  to  keep  down  their  detested 
rivals.  At  dawn  of  day  an  army  was  opposed  to  the 
Calvinists  which  was  far  superior  in  force  to  their  own. 
At  the  head  of  this  army,  the  eloquence  of  Orange  had 
far  greater  effect,  and  found  far  more  attention  than  on 
the  preceding  evening,  unbacked  by  such  strong  persua- 
sion. The  Calvinists,  though  in  possession  of  arms  and 
artillery,  yet,  alarmed  at  the  superior  numbers  arrayed 
against  them,  were  the  first  to  send  envoys,  and  to  treat 
for  an  amicable  adjustment  of  differences,  which  by  the 


228     REVOLT  or  the  Netherlands. 

tact  and  good  temper  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  he  con- 
cluded to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties.  On  the  procla- 
mation of  this  treaty  the  Spaniards  and  Italians  imradi- 
ately  laid  down  tlieir  arms.  They  were  followed  by  the 
Calvinists,  and  these  again  by  the  Roman  Catholics ;  last 
of  all  the  Lutherans  disarmed. 

Two  days  and  two  nights  Antwerp  had  continued  in 
this  alarming  state.  During  the  tumult  the  Roman 
Catholics  had  succeeded  in  placing  barrels  of  gunpowder 
under  the  Meer  Bridge,  and  threatened  to  blow  into  the 
air  the  whole  army  of  the  Calvinists,  who  had  done  the 
same  in  other  places  to  destroy  their  adversaries.  The 
destruction  of  the  town  hung  on  the  issue  of  a  moment, 
and  nothing  but  the  prince's  presence  of  mind  saved  it. 

Noircarmes,  with  his  army  of  Walloons,  still  lay  before 
Valenciennes,  which,  in  firm  reliance  on  being  relieved 
by  the  Gueux,  obstinately  refused  to  listen  to  all  the  rejjre- 
sentations  of  the  regent,  and  rejected  every  idea  of  sur- 
render. An  order  of  the  court  had  expressly  forbidden 
the  royalist  general  to  press  the  siege  until  he  should 
receive  reinforcements  from  Germany,  Whether  from 
forbearance  or  fear,  the  king  regarded  with  abhor- 
rence the  violent  measure  of  storming  the  place,  as 
necessarily  involving  the  innocent  in  the  fate  of  the 
guilty,  and  exposing  the  loyal  subject  to  the  same  ill- 
treatment  as  the  rebel.  As,  however,  the  confidence  of 
the  besieged  augmented  daily,  and  emboldened  by  tlie 
inactivit}'"  of  the  besiegers,  they  annoyed  him  by  frequent 
sallies,  and  after  burning  the  cloisters  before  the  town, 
retired  with  the  plunder  —  as  the  time  uselessly  lost 
before  this  town  was  put  to  good  use  by  the  rebels  and 
their  allies,  Noircarmes  besought  the  duchess  to  obtain 
immediate  permission  from  the  king  to  take  it  by  storm. 
The  answer  arrived  more  quickly  than  Philip  was  ever 
before  wont  to  reply.  As  yet  they  must  be  content, 
simply  to  make  the  necessary  preparations,  and  then  to 
Avait  awhile  to  allow  terror  to  have  its  effect ;  but  if  upon 
this  they  did  not  appear  ready  to  capitulate,  the  storming 
might  tnke  place,  but,  at  the  same  time,  Avith  the  greatest 
possible  regard  for  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants.  Before 
the   regent  allowed   Noircarmes  to  proceed   to  this  ex- 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        229 

tremity  she  empowered  Count  Egmont,  with  the  Duke 
Arschot,  to  treat  once  more  with  the  rebels  amicably. 
Both  conferred  with  the  deputies  of  the  town,  and  omitted 
no  argument  calculated  to  dispel  their  delusion.  They 
acquainted  them  with  the  defeat  of  Thoulouse,  their  sole 
sujjport,  and  witli  the  fact  that  the  Count  of  Megen  had 
cut  off  the  army  of  the  Gueux  from  the  town,  and  assured 
them  that  if  they  had  held  out  so  long  they  owed  it 
entirely  to  the  king's  forbearance.  They  offered  them 
full  pardon  for  the  past;  every  one  was  to  be  free  to 
prove  his  innocence  before  whatever  tribunal  he  should 
chose ;  such  as  did  not  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
privilege  were  to  be  allowed  fourteen  days  to  quit  the  town 
with  all  their  effects.  Nothing  was  required  of  the 
townspeople  but  the  admission  of  the  gan'ison.  To  give 
time  to  deliberate  on  these  terms  an  armistice  of  three 
days  was  granted.  When  the  deputies  returned  they 
found  their  fellow-citizens  less  disposed  than  ever  to  an 
accommodation,  reports  of  new  levies  by  the  Gueux 
having,  in  the  meantime,  gained  currency.  Thoulouse,  it 
was  pretended,  had  conquered,  and  was  advancing  with 
a  powerful  army  to  relieve  the  place.  Their  confidence 
went  so  far  that  they  even  ventured  to  break  the  armis- 
tice, and  to  fire  upon  the  besiegers.  At  last  the  burgo- 
master, with  difticulty,  succeeded  in  bringing  matters  so 
far  towards  a  peaceful  settlement  that  twelve  of  the  toAvn 
counsellors  were  sent  into  the  camp  with  the  following 
conditions:  The  edict  by  which  Valenciennes  had  been 
charged  with  treason  and  declared  an  enemy  to  the 
country  was  required  to  be  recalled,  the  confiscation  of 
their  goods  revoked,  and  the  prisoners  on  both  sides 
restored  to  liberty  ;  the  garrison  was  not  to  enter  the 
town  before  every  one  who  thought  good  to  do  so  liad 
placed  himself  and  his  property  in  security ;  and  a  pledge 
to  be  given  that  the  inhabitants  should  not  be  molested 
in  any  manner,  and  that  their  expenses  should  be  paid  by 
the  king. 

Noiriiarmes  was  so  indignant  with  these  conditions  that 
he  was  almost  on  the  point  of  ill-treating  the  deputies.  If 
they  had  not  come,  he  told  them,  to  give  up  the  place,  they 
might  return  forthwith,  lest  he  should  send  them  home 


230        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

with  their  hands  tied  behind  their  backs.  Upon  this  the 
deputies  threw  the  blame  on  the  obstinacy  of  the  Cal- 
vinists,  and  entreated  hiui,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  to 
keep  them  in  the  camp,  as  they  did  not,  they  said,  wisli 
to  liave  anything  more  to  do  with  their  rebellious  towns- 
men, or  to  be  joined  in  their  fate.  They  even  knelt  to 
beseech  the  intercession  of  Egmont,  but  Noircarmes 
remained  deaf  to  all  their  entreaties,  and  the  sight  of  the 
chains  which  he  ordered  to  be  brought  out  drove  them 
reluctantly  enough  back  to  Valenciennes.  Necessity,  not 
severity,  imposed  this  harsh  procedure  npon  the  general. 
The  detention  of  ambassadors  had  on  a  former  occasion 
drawn  upon  him  the  reprimand  of  the  duchess;  the 
people  in  the  town  would  not  have  failed  to  have  ascribed 
the  non-appearance  of  their  present  deputies  to  the  same 
cause  as  in  the  former  case  had  detained  them.  Besides, 
he  was  loath  to  deprive  the  town  of  any  out  of  the  small 
residue  of  well-disposed  citizens,  or  to  leave  it  a  prey  to 
a  blind,  foolhardy  mob.  Egmont  was  so  mortified  at  the 
bad  i-esult  of  his  embassy  that  he  the  night  following  rode 
round  to  reconnoitre  its  fortifications,  and  returned  well 
satisfied  to  have  convinced  himself  that  it  was  no  longer 
tenable. 

Valenciennes  stretches  down  a  gentle  acclivity  into  the 
level  plain,  being  built  on  a  site  as  strong  as  it  is  delight- 
ful. On  one  side  enclosed  by  the  Scheldt  and  another 
smaller  river,  and  on  the  other  protected  by  deep  ditches, 
thick  walls,  and  towers,  it  appears  capable  of  defying  every 
attack.  But  ISToircarmes  had  discovered  a  few  points 
where  neglect  had  allowed  the  fosse  to  be  filled  almost  up 
to  the  level  of  the  natural  surface,  and  of  these  he  deter- 
mined to  avail  himself  in  storminsr.  He  drew  toirether 
all  the  scattered  corps  by  which  he  had  invested  the  town, 
and  during  a  tempestuous  night  carried  the  suburb  of  Berg 
without  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  He  then  assigned 
separate  points  of  attack  to  the  Count  of  Bossu,  the 
young  Charles  of  Mansfeld,  and  the  younger  Barlaimont, 
and  under  a  terrible  fire,  which  drove  the  enemy  from  his 
walls,  his  troops  were  moved  up  with  all  possible  speed. 
Close  before  the  town,  and  opposite  the  gate  under  the 
eyes  of  the  besiegers,  and  with  very  little  loss,  a  battery 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        231 

was  thrown  up  to  an  equal  height  with  the  fortifications. 
From  this  point  the  town  was  bombarded  with  an  unceas- 
ing fire  for  four  hours.  The  Nicolaus  tower,  on  which 
the  besieged  had  planted  some  artillery,  was  among  the 
first  that  fell,  and  many  perished  under  its  ruins.  The 
guns  were  directed  against  all  the  most  conspicuous 
buildings,  and  a  terrible  slaughter  was  made  amongst  the 
inhabitants.  In  a  few  hours  their  principal  works  were 
destroyed,  and  in  the  gate  itself  so  extensive  a  breach 
was  made  that  the  besieged,  despairing  of  any  longer 
defending  themselves,  sent  in  haste  two  trumpeters  to 
entreat  a  parley.  This  was  granted,  but  the  storm  was 
continued  Avithout  intermission.  The  ambassador  en- 
treated Noircarmes  to  grant  them  the  same  terms  which 
only  two  days  before  they  had  rejected.  But  circum- 
stances had  now  changed,  and  the  victor  would  hear  no 
more  of  conditions.  The  unceasing  fire  left  the  inhabit- 
ants no  time  to  repair  the  ramparts,  which  filled  the 
fosse  with  their  debris,  and  opened  many  a  breach  for  the 
enemy  to  enter  by.  Certain  of  utter  destruction,  they 
surrendered  next  morning  at  discretion  after  a  bombard- 
ment of  six-and-thirty  hours  without  intermission,  and 
three  thousand  bombs  had  been  thrown  into  the  city. 
Koircarmes  marched  into  the  town  with  his  victorious 
army  under  the  strictest  discipline,  and  was  received  by  a 
crowd  of  women  and  children,  who  went  to  meet  him, 
carrying  green  boughs,  and  beseeching  his  pity.  All  the 
citizens  were  immediately  disarmed,  the  commandant 
and  his  son  beheaded ;  thirty-six  of  the  most  guilty  of  the 
rebels,  among  whom  Avere  La  Grange  and  another  Calvin- 
istic  preacher,  Guido  de  Bresse,  atoned  for  their  obstinacy 
at  the  gallows ;  all  the  municipal  functionaries  were 
deprived  of  their  oflices,  and  the  town  of  all  its  privileges. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Avorship  was  immediately  restored 
in  full  dignity,  and  the  Protestant  abolished.  The  Bishop 
of  Arras  was  obliged  to  quit  his  residence  in  the  town, 
and  a  strong  garrison  placed  in  it  to  insure  its  future 
obedience. 

The  fate  of  Valenciennes,  towards  which  all  eyes  had 
been  turned,  was  a  warning  to  the  other  towns  which 
had   similarly   offended.      Noircarmes   followed   up   his 


232       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

victory,  and  marched  immediately  against  Maestricht, 
■which  surrendered  without  a  blow,  and  received  a  garri- 
son. From  thence  he  marched  to  Tornhut  to  awe  by  his 
presence  the  people  of  Herzogenbusch  and  Antwerp, 
The  Gueux  in  this  place,  who  under  the  command  of 
Bomberg  had  carried  all  things  before  them,  were  now 
so  terrified  at  his  approach  that  they  quitted  the  town  in 
haste,  Noircarmes  was  received  Avithout  opposition.  The 
ambassadors  of  the  duchess  were  immediately  set  at 
libei'ty.  A  strong  garrison  was  thrown  into  Tornhut. 
Cambray  also  opened  its  gates,  and  joyfully  recalled  its 
archbishop,  whom  the  Calvinists  had  driven  from  his  see, 
and  who  deserved  this  triumph  as  he  did  not  stain  liis 
entrance  Avith  blood.  Ghent,  Ypres,  and  Oudenarde 
submitted  and  received  garrisons.  Gueldres  was  now 
almost  entirely  cleared  of  the  rebels  and  reduced  to 
obedience  by  the  Count  of  Megen.  In  Friesland  and 
Groningen  the  Count  of  Aremberg  had  eventually  the 
same  success;  but  it  was  not  obtained  here  so  rapidly  or 
so  easily,  since  the  count  wanted  consistency  and  firmness, 
and  these  Avarlike  republicans  maintained  more  pertina- 
ciously their  privileges,  and  were  greatly  supported  by 
the  strength  of  their  position.  With  the  exception  of 
Holland  all  the  provinces  had  yielded  before  tiie  victori- 
ous arms  of  the  duchess.  The  courage  of  the  disaffected 
sunk  entirely,  and  nothing  was  left  to  them  but  flight  or 
submission. 

EESIGNATIOX    OF    AA^LLIAM    OF    ORANGE. 

EA'er  since  the  establishment  of  the  Guesen  league, 
but  more  perceptibly  since  the  outbreak  of  the  Iconoclasts, 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  and  disaffection  had  spread  so 
rapidly  among  all  classes,  parties  had  become  so  blended 
and  confused,  that  the  regent  had  difficulty  in  distinguish- 
ing her  oAvn  adherents,  and  at  last  hardly  kncAV  on  Avhoni 
to  rely.  The  lines  of  demarcation  between  the  loyal  and 
the  disaffected  had  groAvn  gradually  fainter,  until  at  last 
tliey  almost  entirely  vanished.  The  frequent  alterations, 
too,  which  she  had  been  obliged  to  make  in  the  laAvs,  and 
which  were  at  most  the  expedients  and  suggestions  of 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        233 

the  moment,  had  taken  from  them  their  precision  and 
binding  force,  and  liad  given  full  scope  to  the  arbitrary 
will  of  every  individual  whose  office  it  was  to  interpret 
them.    And  at  last,  amidst  the  number  and  variety  of  the 
interpretations,  the   spirit  was  lost  and  the  intention  of 
the   lawgiver   baffled.     The   close   connection   which    in 
many  cases  subsisted   between  Protestants  and   Roman 
Catholics,  between  Gueux  and  Royalists,  and  which  not 
unfrequently  gave  them  a  common  interest,  led  the  latter 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  loophole  which  the  vagueness 
of  the  laws  left  open,  and  in  favor  of  their  Protestant 
friends  and  associates  evaded  by  subtle  distinctions  all 
severity  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.     In  their  minds 
it  was  enough  not  to  be  a  declared  rebel,  not  one  of  the 
Gueux,   or  at  least  not   a  heretic,   to  be   authorized  to 
mould  their  duties  to  their  inclinations,  and  to  set  the 
most    arbitrary  limits    to   their   obedience  to  the   king. 
Feeling  themselves   irresponsible,  the  governors  of   the 
provinces,  the  civil  functionaries,  both  high  and  low,  the 
municipal  officers,  and  the  military  commanders  had  all 
become  extremely  remiss  in  their  duty,  and  presuming 
upon   this  impunity  showed   a  pernicious  indulgence  to 
the  rebels  and  their  adherents  which  rendered  abortive 
all  the  regent's  measures  of  coercion.     This  general  in- 
difference and    corruption  of  so  many  servants  of  the 
state   had  further  this  injurious  result,  that  it  led  the 
turbulent   to   reckon   on    far   stronger   support   than    in 
reality  they  had  cause  for,  and  to  count  on  their  own 
side  all  who  were  but  lukewarm  adherents  of  the  court. 
This  way  of  thinking,   erroneous  as  it  was,  gave  them 
greater  courage  and  confidence  ;  it  had  the  same  effect  as 
if  it  had  been  well  founded  ;  and  the  uncertain  vassals  of 
the  king  became  in  consequence  almost  as  injurious  to 
him  as  his  declared  enemies,  without  at  the  same  time 
being  liable  to  the  same  measures  of  severity.     This  was 
especially  the  case  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  Counts 
Egmont,  Bergen,  Hogstraten,  Horn,  and  several  others 
of  the  higher  nobility.     The  regent  felt  the  necessity  of 
bringing  these   doubtful  subjects  to  an  explanation,  in 
order  either  to  deprive  the  rebels  of  a  fancied  support 
or  to  unmask  the  enemies  of  the  king.     And   the  latter 


234  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHEllLANDS. 

reason  was   of  the   move   urgent   moment   when   being 
obliged  to  send   an  army  into  tlie  field  it   was  of  tlie 
utmost  importance  to  entrust  the  command  of  the  troops 
to  none  but  those  of  whose  fidelity  she  was  fully  assured. 
She  caused,  therefore,  an  oath  to  be  drawn   up  which 
bound  all  who  took  it  to  advance  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  to  pursue  and  punish  the  Iconoclasts,  and  to  help 
by  every  means  in  tlieir  power  in  extirpating  all  kinds 
of   heresy.     It   also   pledged   them    to  treat   the   king's 
enemies  as  their  own,  and  to  serve  without  distinction 
against  all  whom  the  regent  in  the  king's  name  should 
point  out.     By  this  oath  she  did  not  hope  so  much  to 
test  their  sincerity,  and  still  less  to  secure  them,  as  rather 
to  gain  a  pretext  for  removing  the  suspected  parties  if 
they  declined  to  take  it,  and    for  wresting  from   their 
hands  a  power  which  they  abused,  or  a  legitimate  ground 
for  punishing  them  if  they  took  it  and  broke  it.     This 
oath  was  exacted  from  all  Knights  of  the  Fleece,  all  civil 
functionaries  and  magistrates,  all  ofticers  of  the  army  — 
from  every  one  in  short  who  held  any  appointment  in  the 
state.     Count  Mansfeld  was  the  first  who  publicly  took 
it  in  the  council  of  state  at  Brussels;  his  example  was 
followed  by  the  Duke  of  Arschot,  Counts  Egmont,  Megen, 
and  Barlaimont.     Hogstraten  and  Horn  endeavored  to 
evade  the  necessity.     The  former  was  offended  at  a  proof 
of  distrust  which  shortly  before  the  regent   had  given 
him.     Under  the  pretext  that  Malines  could  not  safely  be 
left  any  longer  without  its  governor,  but  that  the  presence 
of  the  count  was  no  less  necessary  in  Antwerp,  she  had 
taken  from  him  that  province  and  given  it  to  another 
whose  fidelity  she  could  better  reckon  upon.     Hogstraten 
expressed  his  thanks  that  she  had  been  pleased  to  release 
him  from  one  of  his  burdens,  adding  that  she  would  com- 
plete the  obligation  if  she  would  relieve  him  from  the 
other  also.     True  to  his  determination  Count  Horn  was 
living  on  one  of  his  estates  in  the  strong  town  of  Weerdt, 
having  retired    altogether  from  public  affairs.     Having 
quitted  the  service  of  the  state,  lie  owed,  he  thought, 
notliing  more  either  to  the  republic  or  to  the  king,  and 
declined  the  oath,  which  in  bis  case  appears  at  last  to 
have  been  waived. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       235 

The  Count  of  Brederode  was  left  the  choice  of  either 
taking  the  prescribed  oath  or  resigning  the  command  of 
his  squadron  of  cavah-y.  After  many  fruitless  attempts 
to  evade  the  alternative,  on  the  plea  that  he  did  not  hold 
office  in  the  state,  he  at  last  resolved  upon  the  latter 
course,  and  thereby  escaped  all  risk  of  perjuring  himself. 

Vain  were  all  the  attempts  to  prevail  on  the  Prince  of 
Orange  to  take  the  oath,  who,  from  the  suspicion  which 
had  long  attached  to  liim,  required  more  than  any  other 
this  purification ;  and  from  whom  the  great  joower  which 
it  had  been  necessary  to  place  in  his  hands  fully  justified 
the  regent  in  exacting  it.  It  was  not,  however,  advisa- 
ble to  proceed  against  him  with  the  laconic  brevity 
adopted  towards  Brederode  and  the  like;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  voluntary  resignation  of  all  his  offices,  which 
he  tendered,  did  not  meet  the  object  of  the  regent,  who 
foresaw  clearly  enough  how  really  dangerous  he  would 
become,  as  soon  as  he  should  feel  himself  independent, 
and  be  no  longer  checked  by  any  external  considerations 
of  character  or  duty  in  the  prosecution  of  his  secret 
designs.  But  ever  since  the  consultation  in  Dender- 
monde  the  Prince  of  Orange  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
quit  the  service  of  the  King  of  Spain  on  the  first  favora- 
ble opportunity,  and  till  better  days  to  leave  the  country 
itself.  A  very  disheartening  experience  had  taught  him 
how  uncertain  are  hopes  built  on  the  multitude,  and  how 
quickly  their  zeal  is  cooled  by  the  necessity  of  fulfilling 
its  lofty  promises.  An  army  was  already  in  the  field, 
and  a  far  stronger  one  was,  he  knew,  on  its  road,  under 
the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Alva.  The  time  for  re- 
monstrances was  past ;  it  was  only  at  the  head  of  an  army 
that  an  advantageous  treaty  could  now  be  concluded 
with  the  regent,  and  by  preventing  the  entrance  of  the 
Spanish  general.  But  now  where  was  he  to  raise  this 
army,  in  want  as  he  was  of  money,  the  sineM'S  of  warfare, 
since  the  Protestants  had  retracted  their  boastful  prom- 
ises  and   deserted   him   in   this   pressing    emergency?* 

*  How  valiant  the  wish,  ami  how  sorry  the  deed  was,  is  proved  by  the 
following  instance  amongst  others.  Some  friends  of  the  national  liberty, 
Eoman  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants,  had  solemnly  engaged  in  Amsterdam 
to  subscribe  to  a  common  fund  the  hundredth  penny  of  their  estates,  until 
a  sum  of  eleven  thousand  florins  should  be  collected,  which  was  to  be  devoted 


236        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Religions  jealousy  and  hatred,  moreover,  separated  the 
two  Protestant  churclies,  and  stood  in  the  way  of  every 
salutary  combination  against  the  common  enemy  of  their 
faith.  The  rejection  of  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  by 
the  Calvinists  had  exasperated  all  the  Protestant  princes 
of  Germany,  so  that  no  support  was  to  be  looked  for 
from  the  empire.  With  Count  Egmont  the  excellent 
army  of  Walloons  was  also  lost  to  the  cause,  for  they 
followed  with  blind  devotion  the  fortunes  of  their  gen- 
eral, who  had  taught  them  at  St.  Quentin  and  Gravelines 
to  be  invincible.  And  again,  the  outrages  which  the 
Iconoclasts  had  perpetrated  on  the  churches  and  con- 
vents had  estranged  from  the  league  the  numerous, 
Avealthy,  and  powerful  class  of  the  established  clergy,  who, 
before  this  unlucky  episode,  were  already  more  than 
half  gained  over  to  it ;  while,  by  her  intrigues,  the  regent 
daily  contrived  to  deprive  the  league  itself  of  some  one 
or  other  of  its  most  influential  members. 

All  these  considerations  combined  induced  the  prince 
to  postpone  to  a  more  favorable  season  a  project  for 
which  the  present  juncture  was  little  suited,  and  to  leave 
a  country  where  his  longer  stay  could  not  effect  any  ad- 
vantao"e  for  it,  but  must  bring  certain  destruction  on 
himself.  After  intelligence  gleaned  from  so  many  quar- 
ters, after  so  many  proofs  of  distrust,  so  many  warnings 
from  Madrid,  he  could  be  no  longer  doubtful  of  the  sen- 
timents of  Philip  towards  him.  If  even  he  had  any 
doubt,  his  uncertainty  would  soon  have  been  dispelled  by 
the  formidable  armament  which  was  preparing  in  Spain, 
and  v/hicli  was  to  have  for  its  leader,  not  the  king,  as  was 
falsely  given  out,  but,  as  he  was  better  informed,  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  his  personal  enemy,  and  the  very  man  he 
had  most  cause  to  fear.  The  prince  had  seen  too  deeply 
into  Philip's  heart  to  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  his  recon- 
ciliation after  having  once  awakened  his  fears.  He 
judged  his  own   conduct  too  justly  to  reckon,  like  his 

to  the  common  cause  and  interests.  An  alms-box,  ])roteeted  by  three  locks, 
wa^  firopareil  for  the  reception  of  tliese  contributions.  After  the  expiration 
of  the  prescribed  jieriod  it  was  opened,  and  a  sum  was  found  amounting 
to  seven  hundred  florins,  which  was  given  to  the  liostess  of  the  Count  of 
Brederode,  in  part  payment  of  his  unliquidated  score.  Univ.  Hist,  of  the  N., 
vol.  3. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       237 

friend  Egmont,  on  reaping  a  gratitude  from  the  king  to 
"which  he  had  not  sown.  He  could  therefore  expect 
nothing  but  hostihty  fi'om  him,  and  prudence  counselled 
him  to  screen  himself  by  a  timely  flight  from  its  actual 
outbreak.  He  had  hitherto  obstinately  refused  to  take 
the  new'  oath,  and  all  the  written  exhortations  of  the 
regent  had  been  fruitless.  At  last  she  sent  to  him  at 
Antwerp  her  private  secretary,  Berti,  who  was  to  put 
the  matter  emphatically  to  his  conscience,  and  forcibly 
remind  him  of  all  the  evil  consequences  which  so  sudden 
a  retirement  froni  the  royal  service  would  draw  upon  the 
country,  as  well  as  the  irreparable  injury  it  would  do  to  his 
own  fair  fame.  Already,  she  informed  him  by  her  am- 
bassador, his  declining  the  required  oath  had  cast  a  shade 
upon  his  honor,  and  imparted  to  the  general  voice,  which 
accused  him  of  an  understanding  Avith  the  rebels,  an 
appeai'auce  of  truth  which  this  unconditional  resignation 
would  convert  to  absolute  certainty.  It  was  for  the  sov- 
ereign to  discharge  his  servants,  but  it  did  not  become 
the  servant  to  abandon  his  sovereign.  The  envoy  of  the 
regent  found  the  prince  in  his  palace  at  Antwerp, 
already,  as  it  appeared,  withdraAvn  from  the  public  ser- 
vice, and  entirely  devoted  to  his  private  concerns.  The 
prince  told  him,  in  the  presence  of  Hogstraten,  that  he 
had  refused  to  take  the  required  oath  because  he  could 
not  find  that  such  a  proposition  had  ever  before  been 
made  to  a  governor  of  a  province  ;  because  he  had  already 
bound  himself,  once  for  all,  to  the  king,  and  therefore,  by 
taking  this  new  oath,  he  would  tacitly  acknowledge  that 
he  had  broken  the  first.  He  had  also  refused  because 
the  old  oath  enjoined  him  to  protect  the  rights  and  priv- 
ileges of  the  country,  but  he  could  not  tell  wliether  this 
new  one  might  not  impose  upon  him  duties  which  would 
contravene  the  first ;  because,  too,  the  clause  which 
bound  him  to  serve,  if  required,  against  all  without  dis- 
tinction, did  not  except  even  the  emperor,  his  feudal 
lord,  against  whom,  however,  he,  as  his  vassal,  could  not 
conscientiously  make  war.  He  had  refused  to  take  this 
oath  because  it  might  impose  upon  him  the  necessity  of 
surrendering  his  friends  and  relations,  his  children,  nay, 
even  his  wife,  who  was  a  Lutheran,  to  butchery.     Ac- 


238        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

cording  to  it,  moreover,  he  must  lend  himself  to  every 
thing  wliich  it  should  occur  to  the  king's  fancy  or  passion 
to  demand.  But  the  king  might  thus  exact  from  him 
things  Avhich  he  shuddered  even  to  think  of,  and  even 
the  severities  which  were  now,  and  had  been  all  along, 
exercised  upon  the  Protestants,  were  the  most  revolting 
to  his  heart.  This  oath,  in  short,  was  repugnant  to  his 
feelings  as  a  man,  and  he  could  not  take  it.  In  con- 
clusion, the  name  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  dropped  from  his 
lips  in  a  tone  of  bitterness,  and  he  became  immediately 
silent. 

All  these  objections  were  answered,  point  by  point,  by 
Berti.  Certainly  such  an  oath  had  never  been  required 
from  a  governor  before  him,  because  the  provinces  had 
never  been  similarly  circumstanced.  It  was  not  exacted 
because  the  governors  liad  broken  the  first,  but  in  order  to 
remind  tliem  vividly  of  their  former  vows,  and  to  freshen 
their  activity  in  the  present  emergency.  TJiis  oath 
would  not  impose  upon  him  anything  which  offended 
against  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  country,  for  the 
king  had  sworn  to  observe  these  as  well  as  the  Prince  of 
Orange.  The  oath  did  not,  it  was  true,  contain  any  ref- 
erence to  a  war  with  the  emperor,  or  any  other  sov- 
ereign to  whom  the  prince  might  be  related  ;  and  if  he 
really  had  scruples  on  this  point,  a  distinct  clause  could 
easily  be  inserted,  expressly  providing  against  such  a 
contingency.  Care  would  be  taken  to  spare^  him  any 
duties  Avhich  were  repugnant  to  his  feelings  as  a  man, 
and  no  power  on  earth  would  compel  him  to  act  against 
his  wife  or  against  his  children.  Berti  was  then  passing 
to  the  last  point,  which  related  to  the  Duke  of  Alva,  but 
the  prince,  Avho  did  not  wish  to  have  this  part  of  his  dis- 
course canvassed,  interrupted  him.  "The  king  was  com- 
ing to  the  Netherlands,"  he  said,  "and  he  knew  the 
king.  The  king  would  not  endure  that  one  of  his  ser- 
vants should  have  wedded  a  Lutheran,  and  he  had  there- 
fore resolved  to  go  with  his  whole  family  into  voluntary 
banishment  before  he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  the  same 
by  compulsion.  But,"  he  concluded,  "  wherever  he  might 
be,  he  would  always  conduct  himself  as  a  subject  of  the 
kins:."      Thus  far-fetched   were  the  motives  which  the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       239 

prince  adduced  to  avoid  touching  upon  the  single  one 
which  really  decided  him. 

Berti  had  still  a  hope  of  obtaining,  through  Egmont's 
eloquence,  what  by  his  own  he  despaired  of  effecting. 
He  therefore  proposed  a  meeting  with  the  latter  (1567), 
which  the  prince  assented  to  the  more  willingly  as  he 
himself  felt  a  desire  to  embrace  his  friend  once  more 
before  his  departure,  and  if  possible  to  snatch  the  deluded 
man  from  certain  destruction.  This  remarkable  meeting, 
at  which  the  private  secretary,  Berti,  and  the  young 
Count  Mansfeld,  were  also  present,  was  the  last  that  the 
two  friends  ever  held,  and  took  place  in  Villebroeck,  a 
village  on  the  Rupel,  between  Brussels  and  Antwerp, 
The  Galvinists,  whose  last  hope  rested  on  the  issue  of 
this  conference,  found  means  to  acquaint  themselves  of 
its  import  by  a  spy,  who  concealed  himself  in  the 
chimney  of  the  apartment  where  it  was  held.  All  three 
attempted  to  shake  the  determination  of  the  prince,  but 
their  united  eloquence  was  unable  to  move  him  from  his 
purpose.  *'  It  will  cost  you  your  estates.  Orange,  if  you 
persist  in  this  intention,"  said  tlie  Prince  of  Gaure,  as  he 
took  him  aside  to  a  window.  "And  you  your  life,  Eg- 
mont,  if  you  change  not  yours,"  replied  the  former. 
"  To  me  it  will  at  least  be  a  consolation  in  my  misfor- 
tunes that  I  desired,  in  deed  as  well  as  in  word,  to  help 
ray  country  and  ray  friends  in  the  hour  of  need ;  but 
you,  ray  friend,  you  are  dragging  friends  and  country 
with  you  to  destruction."  And  saying  these  words,  he 
once  again  exhorted  hira,  still  raore  urgently  tlian  ever, 
to  return  to  the  cause  of  his  counti-y,  which  his  arm  alone 
was  yet  able  to  preserve ;  if  not,  at  least  for  his  own 
sake  to  avoid  the  tempest  which  was  gathering  against 
him  from  Spain. 

But  all  the  ai-guraents,  however  lucid,  with  which  a 
far-discerning  prudence  supplied  him,  and  however  ur- 
gently enforced,  with  all  the  ardor  and  animation  which 
the  tender  anxiety  of  friendship  could  alone  inspire,  did 
not  avail  to  destroy  the  fatal  confidence  which  still  fet- 
tered Egmont's  better  reason.  The  Avarning  of  Orange 
seemed  to  come  from  a  sad  and  dispirited  heart;  but  for 
Eo-mont  the  world  still  smiled.     To  abandon  the  pomp 


240       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

and  affluence  in  which  he  had  grown  up  to  youth  and 
manhood ;  to  pui't  with  all  the  thousand  conveniences  of 
life  which  alone  made  it  valuable  to  him,  and  all  this  to 
escape  an  evil  which  his  buoyant  spirit  regarded  as 
remote,  if  not  imaginary ;  no,  that  was  not  a  sacrifice 
which  could  be  asked  from  Eg;mont.  But  had  he  even 
been  less  given  to  indulgence  than  he  was,  with  what 
heart  could  he  have  consigned  a  princess,  accustomed  by 
uninterrupted  prosperity  to  ease  and  comfort,  a  wife  Avho 
loved  him  as  dearly  as  she  was  beloved,  the  children  on 
whom  his  soul  hung  in  hope  and  fondness,  to  privations 
at  the  prospect  of  which  his  own  courage  sank,  and  which 
a  sublime  philosophy  alone  can  enable  sensuality  to  un- 
dergo. "You  will  never  persuade  me.  Orange,"  said 
Egmont,  "to  see  things  in  the  gloomy  light  in  which 
they  appear  to  thy  mournful  prudence.  When  I  have 
succeeded  in  abolishing  the  public  preachings,  and  chas- 
tising the  Iconoclasts,  in  crushing  the  rebels,  and  restoring 
peace  and  order  in  the  provinces,  what  can  the  king  lay 
to  my  charge?  The  king  is  good  and  just;  I  have 
claims  upon  his  gratitude,  and  I  must  not  forget  what  I 
owe  to  myself."  "  Well,  then,"  cried  Orange,  indignantly 
and  with  bitter  anguish,  "trust,  if  you  will,  to  this  royal 
gratitude;  but  a  mournful  presentiment  tells  me  —  and 
may  Heaven  grant  that  I  am  deceived! — that  you,  Eg- 
mont, will  be  the  bridge  by  which  the  Spaniards  will 
pass  into  our  country  to  destroy  it."  After  these  words, 
he  drew  him  to  his  bosom,  ardently  clasping  him  in  his 
arms.  Long,  as  though  the  sight  was  to  serve  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  did  he  keep  his  eyes  fixed  ujjon 
him  ;  the  tears  fell ;  they  saw  each  other  no  more. 

The  very  next  day  the  Prince  of  Orange  Avrote  his 
letter  of  resignation  to  the  regent,  in  which  he  assured 
her  of  his  perpetual  esteem,  and  once  again  entreated  her 
to  put  the  best  interpretation  on  his  present  step.  He 
then  set  off  with  his  three  brothers  and  his  Avhole  family 
for  his  own  town  of  Breda,  where  he  remained  only  as 
long  as  was  requisite  to  arrange  some  private  affairs.  His 
eldest  son,  Prince  Philip  William,  was  left  behind  at  the 
University  of  Louvain,  where  he  thought  him  sufficiently 
secure  under  the  protection  of  tlie   privileges  of  Brabant 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        241 

and  the  immunities  of  the  academy;  an  imprudence 
which,  if  it  was  really  not  designed,  can  hardly  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  just  estimate  which,  in  so  many  other  cases, 
he  had  taken  of  the  character  of  his  adversary.  In  Breda 
the  heads  of  the  Calvinists  once  more  consulted  him 
whether  there  was  still  hope  for  them,  or  whether  all  was 
irretrievably  lost.  "He  had  before  advised  them,"rei3lied 
the  prince,  "and  must  now  do  so  again,  to  accede  to  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg ;  then  they  might  rely  upon  aid 
from  Germany,  If  they  would  still  not  consent  to  this, 
they  must  raise  six  hundred  thousand  florins,  or  more, 
if  they  could."  "  The  first,"  they  answered,  "  was  at 
variance  with  their  conviction  and  their  conscience ;  but 
means  might  perhaps  be  found  to  raise  the  money  if  he 
would  only  let  them  know  for  what  purpose  he  would 
use  it.  "  No !  "  cried  he,  with  the  utmost  displeasure, 
"  if  I  must  tell  you  that,  it  is  all  over  with  the  use  of  it." 
With  these  words  he  immediately  broke  off  the  confer- 
ence and  dismissed  the  deputies. 

The  Prince  of  Orange  was  reproached  with  having 
squandered  his  fortune,  and  with  favoring  the  innovations 
on  account  of  his  debts  ;  but  he  asserted  that  he  still 
enjoyed  sixty  thousand  florins  yearly  rental.  Before  his 
departure  he  borrowed  twenty  thousand  florins  from  the 
states  of  Holland  on  the  mortgage  of  some  manors.  Men 
could  hadly  persuade  themselves  that  he  would  have 
succumbed  to  necessity  so  entire^j^,  and  without  an  effort 
at  resistance  given  up  all  his  hopes  and  schemes.  But 
what  he  secretly  meditated  no  one  knew,  no  one  had  read 
in  his  heart.  Being  asked  how  he  intended  to  conduct 
himself  towards  the  King  of  Spain,  "Quietly,"  was  his 
answer,  "  unless  he  touches  my  honor  or  my  estates."  He 
left  the  Netherlands  soon  afterwards,  and  betook  himself 
in  retirement  to  the  town  of  Dillenburg,  in  Nassau,  at 
which  place  he  was  born.  He  was  accompanied  to  Ger- 
many by  many  hundreds,  either  as  his  servants  or  as 
volunteers,  and  was  soon  followed  by  Counts  Hogstraten, 
Kuilemberg,  and  Bergen,  who  preferred  to  share  a  volun- 
tary exile  with  him  rather  than  recklessly  involve  them- 
selves in  an  uncertain  destiny.  In  his  departure  the 
nation  saw  the  flight  of  its  guardian  angel;  many  had 


242  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

adored,  all  had  honored  him.  With  him  the  last  stay  of 
the  Protestants  gave  way;  they,  however,  had  greater 
hopes  from  this  man  in  exile  than  from  all  the  others 
tof>-ether  who  remahied  behind.  Even  the  Roman  Cath- 
oli'cs  could  not  witness  his  departure  without  regret. 
Them  also  had  he  shielded  from  tyranny ;  lie  had  not  un- 
frequently  protected  them  against  the  oppression  of  their 
own  church,  and  he  had  rescued  many  of  them  from  the 
sanguinary  jealousy  of  their  religious  opponents.  A  few 
fanatics  among  the  Calvinists,  who  were  offended  with 
his  pi-oposal  of  an  alliance  with  their  brethren,  wlio 
avowed  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  solemnized  with 
secret  thanksgivings  tl\e  day  on  which  the  enemy  left 
them.     (1567). 

DECAY    AND    DISPERSION    OF    THE    GEUSEN   LEAGUE. 

Immediately  after  taking  leave  of  his  friend,  the  Prince 
of  Gaure  hastened  back  to  Brussels,  to  receive  from  the 
regent  the  reward  of  his  firmness,  and  there,  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  court  and  in  the  sunshine  of  his  good  fortune, 
to  dispel  the  liglit  cloud  which  the  earnest  warnings  of 
tlie  Prince  of  Orange  had  cast  over  his  natural  gayety. 
The  flight  of  the  latter  now  left  him  in  possession  of  the 
stage.  He  had  now  no  longer  any  rival  in  the  republic 
to  dim  his  glory.  With  redoubled  zeal  he  wooed  the 
transient  favor  of  the  court,  above  which  he  ought  to  have 
felt  himself  far  exalted.  All  Brussels  must  participate  in 
his  joy.  He  gave  splendid  banquets  and  public  enter- 
tainments, at  which,  the  better  to  eradicate  all  suspicion 
from  his  mind,  the  regent  herself  frequently  attended. 
Not  content  with  having  taken  the  required  oath,  he  out- 
stripped the  most  devout  in  devotion  ;  outran  the  most 
zealous  in  zeal  to  extirpate  the  Protestant  faith,  and  to 
reduce  by  force  of  arms  the  refractory  towns  of  Flanders. 
He  declared  to  his  old  friend.  Count  Hogstraten,  as  also 
to  the  rest  of  the  Gueux,  that  he  would  withdraw  from 
them  his  friendship  forever  if  they  hesitated  any  longer 
to  return  into  the  bosom  of  the  church,  and  reconcile 
themselves  with  their  king.  All  the  confidential  letters 
which  had  been  exchanged  between  him  and  them  were 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        243 

returned,  and  by  this  last  step  tlie  breach  between  thena 
Avas  made  public  and  irreparable.  Egmont's  secession, 
and  the  flight  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  destroyed  the  last 
hope  of  the  Protestants  and  dissolved  the  whole  league 
of  the  Gueux.  Its  members  vied  with  each  other  in 
readiness  —  nay,  they  could  not  soon  enough  abjure 
the  covenant  and  take  the  new  oath  proposed  to 
them  by  the  government.  In  vain  did  the  Protestant 
merchants  exclaim  at  this  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  nobles ;  their  weak  voice  was  no  longer  listened  to, 
and  all  the  sums  were  lost  with  which  they  had  supplied 
the  league. 

The  most  important  places  were  quickly  reduced  and 
garrisoned ;  the  rebels  had  fled,  or  j^erished  by  the  hand 
of  the  executioner ;  in  the  provinces  no  protector  was  left. 
All  yielded  to  the  fortune  of  the  regent,  and  her  victorious 
army  was  advancing  against  Antwerp.  After  a  long  and 
obstinate  contest  this  town  had  been  cleared  of  the  worst 
rebels ;  Hermann  and  his  adherents  took  to  flight ;  the 
internal  storms  had  spent  their  rage.  The  minds  of  the 
people  became  gradually  composed,  and  no  longer  excited 
at  will  by  every  furious  fanatic,  began  to  listen  to  better 
counsels.  The  Avealthier  citizens  earnestly  longed  for 
peace  to  revive  commerce  and  trade,  which  had  suffered 
severely  from  the  long  reign  of  anarchy.  The  dread  of 
Alva's  approach  worked  wonders ;  in  order  to  prevent  the 
miseries  which  a  Spanish  army  would  inflict  upon  tlie 
country,  the  people  hastened  to  throw  themselves  on  the 
gentler  mercies  of  the  regent.  Of  their  own  accord  they 
despatched  plenipotentiaries  to  Brussels  to  negotiate  for 
a  treaty  and  to  hear  her  terms.  Agreeably  as  the  regent 
was  surprised  by  this  voluntary  step,  she  did  not  allow 
herself  to  be  hurried  away  by  her  joy.  She  declared  that 
she  neither  could  nor  would  listen  to  any  ovei'tures  or 
representations  until  the  town  had  received  a  garrison. 
Even  this  was  no  longer  opposed,  and  Count  Mansfeld 
marched  in  the  day  after  with  sixteen  squadrons  in  battle 
array.  A  solemn  treaty  was  now  made  between  the  town 
and  duchess,  by  which  the  former  bound  itself  to  prohibit 
the  Calvinistic  form  of  worship,  to  banish  all  preachers  of 
that  persuasion,  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 


244        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

to  its  former  dignity,  to  decorate  the  despoiled  churches 
with  their  former  ornaments,  to  administer  the  old  edicts 
as  before,  to  take  the  new  oatli  which  the  other  towns 
had  sworn  to,  and,  lastly,  to  deliver  into  the  hands  of 
justice  all  who  been  guilty  of  treason,  in  bearing  arms,  or 
taking  j^art  in  the  desecration  of  the  churches.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  regent  pledged  herself  to  forget  all  that 
had  passed,  and  even  to  intercede  for  the  offenders  with 
the  king.  All  those  who,  being  dubious  of  obtaining 
pardon,  preferred  banishment,  were  to  be  allowed  a  month 
to  convert  their  property  into  money,  and  place  them- 
selves in  safety.  From  this  grace  none  were  to  be  ex- 
cluded but  such  as  had  been  guilty  of  a  capital  offence, 
and  who  were  excepted  by  the  previous  article.  Imme- 
diately upon  the  conclusion  of  this  treaty  all  Calvinist 
and  Lutheran  preachers  in  Antwerp,  and  the  adjoining 
territory,  were  warned  by  the  herald  to  quit  the  country 
within  twenty-four  hours.  All  the  streets  and  gates  were 
now  thronged  with  fugitives,  who  for  the  honor  of  their 
God  abandoned  what  was  dearest  to  them,  and  sought  a 
more  peaceful  home  for  their  persecuted  faith.  Here 
husbands  were  taking  an  eternal  farewell  of  their  wives, 
fathers  of  their  children ;  there  whole  families  were  pre- 
paring to  depart.  All  Antwerp  resembled  a  house  of 
mourning;  wherever  the  eye  turned  some  affecting  spec- 
tacle of  painful  separation  presented  itself.  A  seal  was 
set  on  the  doors  of  the  Protestant  churches ;  the  whole 
worship  seemed  to  be  extinct.  The  10th  of  April  (1567) 
was  tlie  day  appointed  for  the  departure  of  the  preachers. 
In  the  town  hall,  where  they  appeared  for  the  last 
time  to  take  leave  of  the  magistrate,  they  could  not 
command  their  grief ;  but  broke  foi'th  into  bitter  re- 
proaches. They  had  been  sacrificed,  they  exclaimed,  they 
had  been  shamefully  betrayed;  but  a  time  would  come 
when  Antwerp  would  pay  dearly  enough  for  this  baseness. 
Still  more  bitter  were  the  complaints  of  the  Lutheran 
clergy,  Avhom  the  magistrate  himself  had  invited  into  the 
country  to  preach  against  the  Calvinists.  Under  the 
delusive  representation  that  the  king  was  not  unfavorable 
to  their  religion  they  had  been  seduced  into  a  combina- 
tion against  the  Calvinists,  but  as  soon  as  the  latter  had 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       245 

been  by  their  co-operation  brought  under  subjection,  and 
their  own  services  were  no  longer  required,  they  were  left 
to  bewail  their  folly,  which  had  involved  themselves  and 
their  enemies  in  common  ruin. 

A  few  days  afterwards  the  regent  entered  Antwerp  in 
triumph,  accompanied  by  a  thousand  Walloon  horse,  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  all  the  governors  and  coun- 
sellors, a  number  of  municipal   officers,  and  her  whole 
court.     Her  first  visit  was  to  the  cathedral,  which  still 
bore  lamentable  traces  of  the  violence  of  the  Iconoclasts, 
and  drew  from  her  many  and  bitter  tears.     Immediately 
afterwards  four  of  the  rebels,  who  had  been_  overtaken  in 
their  flight,  were  brought  in  and  executed  in  the  public 
market-place.     All  the  children  who  had  been  baptized 
after   the  Protestant   rites   were    rebaptized   by  Roman 
Catholic  priests ;  all  the  schools  of  heretics  were  closed, 
and  their  churches  levelled  to  the  ground.    Nearly  all  the 
towns  in  the  Netherlands  followed  the  example  of  Antwerp 
and  banished   the  Protestant  preachers.     By  the  end  of 
April  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  were  repaired  and  em- 
bellished  more  splendidly  than  ever,  while  all  the  Prot- 
estant places  of  worship  were   pulled   down,  and   every 
vestige  of  the  pi-oscribed  belief  obliterated  in  the  seventeen 
provinces.    The  populace,  whose  sympathies  are  generally 
with  the  successful  party,  was  now  as  active  in  accelerating 
the  ruin  of  the  unfortunate  as  a  short  time  before  it  had 
been  furiously  zealous  in  its  cause ;  in  Ghent  a  large  and 
beautiful  church  which  the   Calvinists   had  erected  was 
attacked,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  had  wholly  disappeared. 
From  the  beams  of  the  roofless  churches  gibbets  were 
erected  for  those  who  had   profaned  the  sanctuaries  of 
tlie  Roman  Catholics.    The  places  of  execution  were  filled 
with  corpses,  the  prisons  with  condemned  victims,  the  high 
roads  with  fugitives.     Innumerable  Avere  the  victims  of 
this  year  of  murder;  in  the  smallest  towns  fifty  at  least, 
in  several  of  the  larger  as  many  as  three  hundred,  were 
put  to  death,  while  no  account  Avas  kept  of  the  numbers 
in  the  open  country  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  px-ovost- 
marshal  and  were  immediately  strung  up  as  miscreants, 
without  trial  and  without  mei'cy. 

The  regent  was  still  in  Antwerp  when  ambassadors 


246       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

presented  themselves  from  the  Electors  of  Brandenburg, 
Saxony,  Hesse,  Wuvtemberg,  and  Baden  to  intercede  for 
their  fugitive  brethren  in  the  faith.  Tlie  expelled  preach- 
ers of  the  Ausrsbursf  Confession  had  claimed  the  ris^hts 
assured  to  them  by  the  religious  peace  of  the  Germans, 
in  which  Brabant,  as  part  of  the  empire,  participated,  and 
had  thrown  themselves  on  the  protection  of  those  princes. 
The  arrival  of  the  foreign  ministers  alarmed  the  regent, 
and  she  vainly  endeavored  to  prevent  their  entrance  into 
Antwerp  ;  under  the  guise,  however,  of  showing  them 
marks  of  honor,  she  continued  to  keep  them  closely 
watched  lest  they  should  encourage  the  malcontents  in 
any  attempts  against  the  peace  of  the  town.  From  the 
high  tone  which  they  most  unreasonably  adopted  towards 
the  regent  it  might  almost  be  inferred  that  they  were 
little  in  earnest  in  their  demand.  "  It  was  but  reasonable," 
they  said,  "  that  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  as  the  only 
one  which  met  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  should  be  the 
ruling  faith  in  the  Netherlands  ;  but  to  persecute  it  by 
such  cruel  edicts  as  were  in  force  was  positively  unnatural 
and  could  not  be  allowed.  They  therefore  required  of 
the  regent,  in  the  name  of  religion,  not  to  treat  the  people 
entrusted  to  her  rule  with  such  severity.  She  replied 
through  the  Count  of  Staremberg,  her  minister  for 
German  affairs,  that  such  an  exordium  deserved  no  answer 
at  all.  From  the  sympathy  which  the  German  princes 
had  shown  for  the  Belgian  fugitives  it  was  clear  that  they 
gave  less  credit  to  the  letters  of  the  king,  in  explanation 
of  his  measures,  than  to  the  reports  of  a  few  worthless 
wretches  who,  in  the  desecrated  churches,  had  left  behind 
them  a  worthier  memorial  of  their  acts  and  characters. 
It  would  far  more  become  them  to  leave  to  the  King  of 
Spain  the  care  of  his  own  subjects,  and  abandon  the 
attempt  to  foster  a  spirit  of  rebellion  in  foreign  countries, 
from  which  they  would  reap  neither  honor  nor  profit.  The 
ambassadors  left  Antwerp  in  a  few  days  without  having 
effected  anything.  The  Saxon  minister,  indeed,  in  a 
private  interview  with  the  regent  even  assured  her  that 
his  master  had  most  reluctantly  taken  this  step. 

The   German   ambassadors  had  not  quitted    Antwerp 
when  intelligence  from  Holland  completed  the  triumph 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       247 

of  the  regent.  From  fear  of  Count  Megen  Count  Brede- 
rode  had  deserted  his  town  of  Viane,  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  Protestants  inhabitants  had  succeeded  in  throwing 
hnuself  into  Amsterdam,  where  his  arrival  caused  great 
alarm  to  the  city  magistrate,  who  had  previously  found 
difficulty  in  preventing  a  revolt,  while  it  revived  the 
courage  of  the  Protestants,  tiere  Brederode's  adherents 
increased  daily,  and  many  noblemen  flocked  to  him  from 
Utrecht,  Friesland,  and  Grouingen,  whence  the  victorious 
arms  of  Megen  and  Aremberg  had  driven  them.  Under 
various  disguises  they  found  means  to  steal  into  the  city, 
where  they  gathered  round  Brederode,  and  served  him 
as  a  strong  body-guard.  The  regent,  apjDrehensive  of  a 
new  outbreak,  sent  one  of  her  private  secretaries,  Jacob 
de  la  Torre,  to  the  council  of  Amsterdam,  and  ordered 
them  to  get  rid  of  Count  Brederode  on  any  terms  and  at 
any  risk.  Neither  the  magistrate  nor  de  la  Torre  him- 
self, who  visited  Brederode  in  person  to  acquaint  him 
with  the  will  of  the  duchess,  could  prevail  upon  him  to 
depart.  The  secretary  was  even  surprised  in  his  own 
chamber  by  a  party  of  Brederode's  followers,  and  deprived, 
of  all  his  papers,  and  would,  perhaps,  have  lost  his  life 
also  if  he  had  not  contrived  to  make  his  escape.  Brede- 
rode remained  in  Amsterdam  a  full  month  after  this 
occurrence,  a  powerless  idol  of  the  Protestants,  and  an 
oppressive  burden  to  the  Roman  Catholics;  while  his  fine 
army,  which  he  had  left  in  Viane,  reinforced  by  many 
fugitives  from  the  southern  provinces,  gave  Count  Megen 
enough  to  do  wdthout  attempting  to  harass  the  Protestants 
in  their  flight.  At  last  Brederode  resolved  to  follow  the 
example  of  Orange,  and,  yielding  to  necessity,  .abandon  a 
desperate  cause.  He  informed  the  town  council  that  he 
was  willing  to  leave  Amsterdam  if  they  would  enable 
him  to  do  so  by  furnishing  him  with  the  pecuniary  means. 
Glad  to  get  quit  of  him,  they  hastened  to  borrow  the 
money  on  the  security  of  the  tovrn  council.  Brederode 
quitted  Amsterdam  the  same  night,  and  was  conveyed  in 
a  gunboat  as  far  as  Vlie,  from  whence  he  fortunately 
escaped  to  Embden.  Fate  treated  him  more  mildly  than 
the  majority  of  those  he  had  implicated  in  his  foolhardy 
enterprise ;  he  died  the  year  after,  1568,  at  one  of  his 


248  REVOLT   OF   THE    NETHEIILANDS. 

castles  in  Germany,  from  the  effects  of  drinking,  by  wliich 
he  sought  ultimately  to  drown  his  grief  and  disappoint- 
ments. His  Avidovv,  Countess  of  Moers  in  her  own  riglit, 
was  remarried  to  the  Prince  Palatine,  Frederick  HI.  Tlio 
Protestant  cause  lost  but  little  by  his  demise ;  the  work 
which  he  had  commenced,  as  it  had  not  been  kept  alive 
by  him,  so  it  did  not  die  with  him. 

The  little  army,  which  in  his  disgraceful  flight  he  had 
deserted,  was  bold  and  valiant,  and  had  a  few  resolute 
leaders.  It  disbanded,  indeed,  as  soon  as  he,  to  whom  it 
looked  for  pay,  had  fled  ;  but  hunger  and  courage  kept 
its  parts  togetlier  some  time  longer.  One  body,  under 
command  of  Dietrich  of  Battenburgh,  marched  to 
Amsterdam  in  the  hope  of  carrying  that  town ;  but 
Count  Megen  hastened  with  thirteen  companies  of  ex- 
cellent troops  to  its  relief,  and  compelled  the  rebels  to 
give  up  the  attempt.  Contenting  themselves  with  plun- 
dering the  neighboring  cloisters,  among  which  the  abbey 
of  Egmont  in  particular  was  hardly  dealt  with,  they 
turned  off  towards  Waaterland,  where  they  hoped  the 
numerous  swamps  would  protect  them  from  pursuit.  But 
thither  Count  Megen  followed  them,  and  compelled  them 
in  all  haste  to  seek  safety  in  the  Zuyderzee.  Tlie  brothers 
Van  Battenburg,  and  two  Friesan  nobles,  Beima  and 
Galaraa,  with  a  hundred  and  twenty  men  and  the  booty 
they  had  taken  from  the  monasteries,  embarked  near  the 
town  of  Hoorne,  intending  to  cross  to  Friesland,  but 
through  the  treachery  of  the  steersman,  who  ran  the 
vessel  on  a  sand-bank  near  Harlingen,  they  fell  into  the 
hands  of  one  of  Aremberg's  captains,  who  took  them  all 
prisoners.  The  Count  of  Aremberg  immediately  pro- 
nounced sentence  upon  all  the  captives  of  plebeian  rank, 
but  sent  his  noble  prisoners  to  the  regent,  who  caused 
seven  of  them  to  be  beheaded.  Seven  others  of  the  most 
noble,  including  the  brothers  Van  Battenburg  and  some 
Frieslanders,  all  in  the  bloom  of  youth,  were  reserved  for 
the  Duke  of  Alva,  to  enable  him  to  signalize  the  commence- 
ment of  his  administration  by  a  deed  which  was  in  every 
way  woi'thy  of  him.  The  troops  in  four  other  vessels 
which  set  sail  from  Medenblick,  and  were  pursued  by  Count 
Megen  in  small  boats,  were  more  successful.     A  contrary 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       249 

wind  had  forced  them  out  of  their  course  and  driven  them 
ashore  on  the  coast  of  Gueldres,  where  they  all  got  safe 
to  land  ;  crossing  the  Rhine,  near  Heusen,  they  fortunately- 
escaped  into  Cleves,  where  they  tore  their  flags  in  jjieces 
and  disjjersed.  In  North  Holland  Count  Megen  overtook 
some  squadrons  who  had  lingered  too  long  in  plundering 
the  cloisters,  and  completely  overpowered  them.  He 
afterwards  formed  a  junction  with  Noircarmes  and 
garrisoned  Amsterdam.  The  Duke  Erich  of  Brunswick 
also  surprised  three  companies,  the  last  remains  of  the 
army  of  the  Gueux,  near  Viane,  where  they  were  endeav- 
oring to  take  a  battery,  routed  them  and  captured  their 
leader,  Rennesse,  who  was  shortly  afterwards  beheaded 
at  the  castle  of  Freudenburg,  in  Utrecht.  Subsequently^, 
when  Duke  Erich  entered  Viane,  he  found  nothing  but 
deserted  streets,  the  inhabitants  having  left  it  with  the 
G:arrison  on  the  first  alarm.  He  immediately  razed  the 
fortifications,  and  reduced  this  arsenal  of  the  Gueux  to 
an  open  town  without  defences.  All  the  originators  of 
the  league  were  now  dispersed ;  Brederode  and  Louis  of 
Nassau  had  fled  to  Germany,  and  Counts  Hogstraten, 
Bergen,  and  Kuilemberg  had  followed  their  example. 
Mansfeld  had  seceded,  the  brothers  Van  Battenburg 
awaited  in  prison  an  ignomonious  fate,  while  Thoulouse 
alone  had  found  an  honorable  death  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Those  of  the  confederates  who  had  escaped  the  sword  of 
the  enemy  and  the  axe  of  the  executioner  had  saved 
nothing  but  their  lives,  and  thus  the  title  which  they 
had  assumed  for  show  became  at  last  a  terrible  reality. 

Such  was  the  inglorious  end  of  the  noble  league,  which 
in  its  beginning  awakened  such  fair  hopes  and  promised 
to  become  a  powerful  protection  against  oppression. 
Unanimity  was  its  strength,  distrust  and  internal  dissen- 
sion its  ruin.  It  brought  to  light  and  developed  many 
rare  and  beautiful  virtues,  but  it  wanted  the  most  indis- 
pensable of  all,  prudence  and  moderation,  without  which 
any  undertaking  must  miscarry,  and  all  the  fruits  of  the 
most  laborious  industry  perish.  If  its  objects  had  been 
as  pure  as  it  pretended,  or  even  had  they  remained  as 
pure  as  they  really  were  at  its  first  establishment,  it  might 
have  defied  the  unfortunate  combination  of  circumstances 


250       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

which  prematurely  overwhehned  it,  and  even  if  unsuc- 
cessful it  would  still  have  deserved  an  honorable  mention 
in  history.  But  it  is  too  evident  that  the  confederate 
nobles,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  took  a  greater 
share  in  the  frantic  excesses  of  the  Iconoclasts  than  com- 
ported with  the  dignity  and  blamelessness  of  their  con- 
federation, and  many  among  them  ojjenly  exchanged 
their  own  good  cause  for  the  mad  enterprise  of  these 
worthless  vagabonds.  The  restriction  of  the  Inquisition 
and  a  mitigation  of  the  cruel  inhumanity  of  the  edicts 
must  be  laid  to  the  credit  of  the  league ;  but  this  ti'an- 
sient  relief  was  dearly  purchased,  at  the  cost  of  so  many 
of  the  best  and  bravest  citizens,  who  either  lost  their 
lives  in  the  held,  or  in  exile  carried  their  M'ealth  and 
industry  to  another  quarter  of  the  world  ;  and  of  the 
presence  of  Alva  and  the  Spanish  arms.  Many,  too,  of 
its  peaceable  citizens,  who  without  its  dangerous  tempta- 
tions would  never  have  been  seduced  from  the  ranks  of 
peace  and  order,  were  beguiled  by  the  hope  of  success 
into  the  most  culpable  enterprises,  and  by  their  failure 
plunged  into  ruin  and  misery.  But  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  league  atoned  in  some  measure  for  these  wrongs 
by  positive  benefits.  It  brought  together  and  emboldened 
many  whom  a  selfish  pusillanimity  kept  asunder  and  in- 
active;  it  diffused  a  salutary  public  spirit  amongst  the 
Belgian  people,  which  the  oppression  of  the  government 
had"  almost  entirely  extinguished,  and  gave  unanimity 
and  a  common  voice  to  the  scattered  members  of  the 
nation,  the  absence  of  which  alone  makes  desjiots  bold. 
The  attempt,  indeed,  failed,  and  the  knots,  too  carelessly 
tied,  were  quickly  unloosed ;  but  it  was  through  such 
failures  that  the  nation  was  eventually  to  attain  to  a  firm 
and  lasting  union,  which  should  bid  defiance  to  change. 

The  total  destruction  of  the  Geusen  army  quickly 
brought  the  Dutch  towns  also  back  to  their  obedience, 
and  in  the  provinces  there  remained  not  a  single  place 
which  had  not  submitted  to  the  regent;  but  the  in- 
creasing emigration,  both  of  the  natives  and  the  foreign 
residents,  threatened  the  country  with  depopulation.  In 
Amsterdam  the  crowd  of  fugitives  was  so  great  that 
vessels  were  wanting  to  convey  thera  acrosj*  the  JSTortlj 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        251 

Sea  and  the  Zuyderzee,  and  that  flourishing  emporium 
beheld  witli  dismay  the  approaching  downfall  of  its  pros- 
perity. Alarmed  at  this  general  flight,  the  regent  has- 
tened to  write  letters  to  all  the  towns,  to  encourage  the 
citizens  to  remain,  and  by  fair  promises  to  revive  a  hope 
of  better  and  milder  measures.  In  the  king's  name  she 
promised  to  all  who  would  freely  swear  to  obey  the  state 
and  the  church  complete  indemnity,  and  by  public  proc- 
lamation invited  the  fugitives  to  trust  to  the  royal  clem- 
ency and  return  to  their  liomes.  She  engaged  also  to 
relieve  the  nation  from  the  dreaded  presence  of  a  Spanish 
army,  even  if  it  were  already  on  the  frontiers  ;  nay,  she 
went  so  far  as  to  drop  hints  that,  if  necessary,  means 
might  be  found  to  prevent  it  by  force  from  entering  the 
provinces,  as  she  was  fully  determined  not  to  relinquish 
to  another  the  gloiy  of  a  peace  which  it  had  cost  her  so 
much  labor  to  effect.  Few,  however,  returned  in  reliance 
upon  her  word,  and  these  few  had  cause  to  repent  it  in 
the  sequel;  many  thousands  had  already  quitted  the 
country,  and  several  thousands  more  quickly  followed 
them.  Germany  and  England  were  filled  with  Flemish 
emigrants,  who,  Avherever  they  settled,  retained  their 
usages  and  manners,  and  even  tlieir  costume,  unwilling 
to  como  to  the  painful  conclusion  that  they  should  never 
again  see  their  native  land,  and  to  give  up  all  hopes  of 
return.  Few  carried  with  them  any  remains  of  their 
former  aflluence;  the  greater  portion  had  to  beg  their 
way,  and  bestowed  on  their  adopted  country  nothing  but 
industrious  skill  and  honest  citizens. 

And  now  the  regent  hastened  to  report  to  the  king 
tidings  such  as,  during  her  whole  administration,  she  had 
never  before  been  able  to  gratify  him  with.  She  an- 
nounced to  him  that  she  had  "succeeded  in  restoring  quiet 
throughout  the  provinces,  and  that  she  thought  herself 
strong  enough  to  maintain  it.  The  sects  w^ere  extirpated, 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  worship  re-established  in  all  its 
former  splendor ;  the  rebels  had  either  already  met  with, 
or  were  awaiting  in  prison,  the  punishment  they  de- 
served ;  the  towns  were  secured  by  adequate  garrisons. 
Tliere  w\as  therefore  no  necessity  for  sending  Spanish 
trooi)s  into  the  Netherlands,  and  nothing  to  justify  their 


252       KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

entrance.  Their  arrival  would  tend  to  destroy  the  exist- 
ing repose,  which  it  had  cost  so  much  to  establish,  would 
check  the  much-desired  revival  of  commerce  and  trade, 
and,  wliile  it  would  involve  the  country  in  new  expenses, 
would  at  the  same  time  deprive  them  of  the  only  means 
of  supporting  them.  The  mere  rumor  of  the  approacli 
of  a  Spanish  army  had  stripped  the  country  of  many 
thousands  of  its  most  valuable  citizens  ;  its  actual  ap- 
pearance would  reduce  it  to  a  desert.  As  there  was  no 
longer  any  enemy  to  subdue,  or  rebellion  to  suppress,  the 
people  would  see  no  motive  for  the  march  of  this  army 
but  punishment  and  revenge,  and  under  this  supposition 
its  arrival  Avould  neither  be  welcomed  nor  honored.  No 
longer  excused  by  necessity,  this  violent  expedient  would 
assume  the  odious  aspect  of  oppression,  would  exasperate 
the  national  mind  afresh,  drive  the  Protestants  to  des- 
peration, and  arm  their  brethren  in  other  countries  in 
their  defence.  The  regent,  she  said,  had  in  the  king's 
name  promised  the  nation  it  should  be  relieved  from  this 
foreign  army,  and  to  this  stipulation  she  was  principally 
indebted  for  the  present  peace ;  she  could  not  therefore 
guarantee  its  long  continuance  if  her  pledge  was  not 
faithfully  fulfilled.  The  Netherlands  would  receive  him 
as  their  sovereign,  the  king,  with  every  mark  of  attach- 
ment and  veneration,  but  he  must  come  as  a  father  to 
bless,  not  as  a  despot  to  chastise  them.  Let  him  come 
to  enjoy  the  peace  which  she  had  bestowed  on  the  coun- 
try, but  not  to  destroy  it  afresh. 

alva's  armament  and    expedition  to   the   nether- 
lands. 

But  it  was  otherwise  determined  in  the  council  at 
Madrid.  The  minister,  Granvella,  who,  even  while  ab- 
sent himself,  ruled  the  Spanish  cabinet  by  his  adherents  ; 
the  Cardinal  Grand  Inquisitor,  Spinosa,  and  the  Duke  of 
Alva,  swayed  respectively  by  hatred,  a  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion, or  private  interest,  had  outvoted  the  milder  councils 
of  the  Prince  Ruy  Gomes  of  Eboli,  the  Count  of  Fevia, 
and  the  king's  confessor,  Fresneda.  The  insurrection,  it 
was  urged  by  the  former,  was  indeed  quelled  for  the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        253 

present,  but  only  because  the  rebels  were  awed  by  the 
rumor  of  the  king's  anned  approach ;  it  was  to  fear 
of  punishment  alone,  and  not  to  sorrow  for  their  crime, 
that  the  present  calm  was  to  be  ascribed,  and  it  would 
soon  again  be  broken  if  that  feeling  were  allowed  to  sub- 
side. In  fact,  the  offences  of  the  people  fairly  afforded 
the  king  the  opportunity  he  had  so  long  desired  of  carry- 
ing out  his  despotic  views  with  an  appearance  of  justice. 
The  peaceable  settlement  for  which  the  regent  took 
credit  to  herself  was  very  far  from  according  Avith  his 
wishes,  which  sought  rather  for  a  legitimate^  pretext  to 
deprive  the  provinces  of  their  privileges,  which  were  so 
obnoxious  to  his  despotic  temper. 

With  an  impenetrable  dissimulation  Philip  had  hitherto 
fostered  the  general  delusion  that  he  was  about  to  visit 
the  provinces  in  person,  while  all  along  nothing  could 
have  been  more  remote  from  his  real  intentions.  Trav- 
elling at  any  time  ill  suited  the  methodical  regularity  of 
his  life,  which  moved  with  the  precision  of  clockwork ; 
and  liis  narrow  and  sluggish  intellect  was  oppressed  by 
the  variety  and  multitude  of  objects  Avith  which  new 
scenes  crowded  it.  The  difficulties  and  dangers  which 
would  attend  a  journey  to  the  Netherlands  must,  there- 
fore, have  been  peculiarly  alarming  to  his  natural  timidity 
and  love  of  ease.  Why  should  he,  who,  in  all  that  he 
did,  was  accustomed  to  consider  himself  alone,  and  to 
make  men  accommodate  themselves  to  his  principles,  not 
his  princij^les  to  men,  undertake  so  perilous  an  expedition, 
when  he  could  see  neither  the  advantage  nor  necessity  of 
it.  Moreover,  as  it  had  ever  been  to  him  an  utter  impos- 
sibility to  separate,  even  for  a  moment,  his  person  from 
his  royal  dignitv,  which  no  prince  ever  guarded  so  tena- 
ciously and^pedantically  as  himself,  so  the  magnificence 
and  ceremony  which  in  his  mind  M-ere  inseparably  con- 
nected with  such  a  journey,  and  the  expenses  which,  on 
this  account,  it  would  nece'ssarily  occasion,  were  of  them- 
selves sufficient  motives  to  account  for  his  indisposition 
to  it,  without  its  being  at  all  requisite  to  call  in  the  aid 
of  the  influence  of  his"  favorite,  Ruy  Gomes,  Avho  is  said 
to  have  desired  to  separate  his  rival,  the  Duke  of  Alva, 
from  the  king.     Little,  however,  as  he  seriously  intended 


254        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

this  journey,  he  still  deemed  it  advisable  to  keep  up  the 
expectation  of  it,  as  well  with  a  view  of  sustaining 
the  courage  of  the  loyal  as  of  preventing  a  dangerouj? 
combination  of  the  disaffected,  and  stojjping  the  further 
progress  of  the  rebels. 

In  order  to  carry  on  the  deception  as  long  as  possible, 
Philip  made  extensive  preparations  for  his  de})arture,  and 
neglected  nothing  which  could  be  required  for  sucli  an 
event.  He  ordered  ships  to  be  fitted  out,  appointed  the 
officers  and  others  to  attend  him.  To  allay  the  suspicion 
such  warlike  preparations  might  excite  in  all  foreign 
courts,  they  were  informed  through  his  ambassadors  of 
his  real  design.  He  applied  to  the  King  of  France  for  a 
l^assage  for  himself  and  attendants  through  that  king- 
dom, and  consulted  the  Duke  of  Savoy  as  to  the  prefer- 
able route.  He  caused  a  list  to  be  drawn  up  of  all  the 
towns  and  fortified  places  that  lay  in  his  march,  and 
directed  all  the  intermediate  distances  to  be  accurately 
laid  down.  Orders  were  issued  for  taking  a  map  and 
survey  of  the  whole  extent  of  counti-y  between  Savoy 
and  Burgundy,  the  duke  being  requested  to  furnish  the  re- 
quisite surveyors  and  scientific  officers.  To  such  lengths 
was  the  deception  carried  that  the  regent  was  commanded 
to  hold  eisrht  vessels  at  least  in  readiness  off  Zealand,  and 
to  despatch  them  to  meet  the  king  the  mstant  she  heard 
of  his  having  sailed  from  Spain ;  and  these  ships  she  ac- 
tually got  ready,  and  caused  prayers  to  be  offered  up  in 
all  the  churches  for  the  king's  safety  during  the  voyage, 
tliough  in  secret  many  persons  did  not  scruple  to  remark 
that  in  his  chamber  at  Madrid  his  majesty  would  not 
have  much  cause  to  dread  the  storms  at  sea.  Philip 
played  his  part  with  such  masterly  skill  that  the  Belgian 
ambassadors  at  Madrid,  Lords  Bergen  and  Montigny, 
who  at  first  had  disbelieved  in  the  sincerity  of  his  pre- 
tended journey,  began  at  last  to  be  alarmed,  and  infected 
their  friends  in  Brussels  with  similar  apprehensions.  An 
attack  of  tertian  ague,  which  about  this  time  the  king 
suffered,  or  perhaps  feigned,  in  Segovia,  afforded  a  plaus- 
ible pretence  for  postponing  his  journey,  while  meantime 
the  preparations  for  it  were  carried  on  with  the  utmost 
activity.     At  last,  when  the  urgent  and  repeated  solicita- 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        255 

tions  of  his  sister  compelled  him  to  make  a  definite 
explanation  of  his  plans,  he  gave  orders  that  the  Duke  of 
Alva  should  set  out  forthwith  with  an  army,  both  to 
clear  the  way  before  him  of  rebels,  and  to  enhance  the 
splendor  of  his  own  royal  arrival.  He  did  not  yet  ven- 
ture to  throw  off  the  mask  and  announce  the  duke  as  his 
substitute.  He  had  but  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  the 
submission  which  his  Flemish  nobles  would  cheerfully 
yield  to  their  sovei-eign  would  be  refused  to  one  of  his 
servants,  whose  cruel  character  was  well  known,  and  who, 
moreover,  Avas  detested  as  a  foreigner  and  the  enemy 
of  their  constitution.  And,  in  fact,  the  universal  belief 
that  the  king  was  soon  to  follow,  which  long  survived 
Alva's  entrance  into  the  country,  restrained  the  outbreak 
of  disturbances  which  otherwise  would  assuredly  have 
been  caused  by  the  cruelties  wdiich  marked  the  very 
opening  of  the  duke's  government. 

The  clergy  of  Spain,  and  especially  the  Inquisition, 
contributed  richly  towards  the  expenses  of  this  expedition 
as  to  a  holy  war.  Throughout  Spain  the  enlisting  was 
carried  on  Avith  the  utmost  zeal.  The  viceroys  and  gov- 
ernors of  Sardinia,  Sicily,  Naples,  and  Milan  received 
orders  to  select  the  best  of  their  Italian  and  Spanish 
troops  in  the  garrisons  and  despatch  them  to  the  general 
rendezvous  in  the  Genoese  territory,  where  the  Duke  of 
Alva  would  exchange  them  for  the  Spanish  recruits  Avhich 
he  should  bring  with  him.  At  the  same  time  the  regent 
was  commanded  to  hold  in  readiness  a  few  more  regi- 
ments of  German  infanty  in  Luxembourg,  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Counts  Eberstein,  Schaumburg,  and  Lodrona, 
and  also  some  squadrons  of  light  cavalry  in  the  Duchy  of 
Burgundy  to  reinforce  the  Spanish  general  immediately 
on  his  entrance  into  the  provinces.  The  Count  of  Barlai- 
mont  was  commissioned  to  furnish  the  necessary  provision 
for  the  armament,  and  a  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand 
gold  florins  was  remitted  to  the  regent  to  enable  her  to 
meet  these  expenses  and  to  maintain  her  own  troops. 

The  French  court,  however,  under  pretence  of  the  dan- 
ger to  be  apprehended  from  the  Huguenots,  had  refused  to 
allow  the  Spanish  army  to  pass  through  France.  Philip 
applied  to  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  and  Lorraine,  who  were  too 


256       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

dependent  vipon  him  to  refuse  his  request.  The  former 
merely  stipulated  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  main- 
tain two  thousand  infantry  and  a  squadron  of  horse 
at  the  king's  expense  in  order  to  protect  his  country 
from  the  injuries  to  which  it  might  otherwise  be  ex- 
posed from  the  passage  of  the  Spanish  army.  At  the 
same  time  he  undertook  to  provide  the  necessary  supplies 
for  its  maintenance  during  the  transit. 

The  rumor  of  this  arrangement  roused  the  Huguenots, 
the  Genevese,  the  Swiss,  and  the  Orisons.  The  Prince  of 
Conde  and  the  Admiral  Coligny  entreated  Charles  IX.  not 
to  neglect  so  favorable  a  moment  of  inflicting  a  deadly 
blow  on  the  hereditary  foe  of  France.  With  the  aid  of 
the  Swiss,  the  Genevese,  and  his  own  Protestant  subjects, 
it  would,  they  alleged,  be  an  easy  matter  to  destroy  the 
flower  of  the  Spanish  troojjs  in  the  narrow  passes  of 
the  Alpine  mountains;  and  they  promised  to  sup])ort  him 
in  this  undertaking  Avith  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  Hugue- 
nots. This  advice,  however,  whose  dangerous  object 
was  not  easily  to  be  mistaken,  was  plausibly  declined  by 
Charles  IX.,  who  assured  them  that  he  was  both  able  and 
anxious  to  provide  for  the  security  of  his  kingdom.  He 
hastily  despatched  troops  to  cover  the  French  frontiers ; 
and  the  republics  of  Geneva,  Bern,  Zurich,  and  tlie 
Grisons  followed  his  example,  all  ready  to  offer  a  deter- 
mined opposition  to  the  dreaded  enemy  of  their  religion 
and  their  liberty. 

On  the  5th  of  May,  1567,  the  Duke  of  Alva  set  sail  from 
Carthagena  with  thirty  galleys,  which  had  been  furnished 
by  Andrew  Doria  and  the  Duke  Cosmo  of  Florence,  and 
within  eight  days  landed  at  Genoa,  where  the  four  regi- 
ments were  waiting  to  join  him.  But  a  tertian  ague, 
with  which  he  was  seized  shortly  after  his  arrival,  com- 
pelled him  to  remain  for  some  days  inactive  in  Lom- 
bardy  —  a  delay  of  which  the  neighboring  powers  availed 
themselves  to  prepare  for  defence.  As  soon  as  the  duke 
recovered  he  held  at  Asti,  in  Montferrat,  a  review  of  all 
his  troops,  who  were  more  formidable  by  their  valor  than 
by  their  numbers,  since  cavalry  and  infantry  together  did 
not  amount  to  much  above  ten  thousand  men.  In  his 
long  and  perilous  march  he  did  not  wish  to  encumber 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       257 

himself  with  useless  supernumeraries,  which  would  only 
impede  his  progress  and  increase  the  difficulty  of  sup- 
porting his  army.  These  ten  thousand  veterans  were  to 
form  the  nucleus  of  a  greater  army,  Avhich,  according  as 
circumstances  and  occasion  might  require,  he  could  easily 
assemble  in  the  Netherlands  themselves. 

This  army,  however,  was  as  select  as  it  was  small.  It 
consisted  of  the  remains  of  those  victorious  legions  at 
whose  head  Charles  V.  had  made  Europe  tremble ;  san- 
guinary, indomitable  bands,  in  whose  battalions  the  firm- 
ness of  the  old  Macedonian  phalanx  lived  again ;  rapid  in 
their  evolutions  from  long  practice,  hardy  and  enduring, 
proud  of  their  leader's  success,  and  confident  from  past 
victories,  formidable  by  their  licentiousness,  but  still  more 
so  by  their  discipline  ;  let  loose  with  all  the  passions  of  a 
warmer  climate  upon  a  rich  and  peaceful  country,  and 
inexorable  towards  an  enemy  whom  the  church  had 
cursed.  Their  fanatical  and  sanguinary  spirit,  their  thirst 
for  glory  and  innate  courage  was  aided  by  a  rude  sensual- 
ity, the  instrument  by  which  the  Spanish  general  firmly 
and  surely  ruled  his  otherwise  intractable  troops.  With 
a  prudent  indulgence  he  allowed  riot  and  voluptuousness 
to  reign  throughout  the  camp.  Under  his  tacit  connivance 
Italian  courtezans  followed  the  standards;  even  in  the 
march  across  the  Apennines,  where  the  high  price  of 
the  necessaries  of  life  compelled  him  to  reduce  his  force 
to  the  smallest  possible  number,  he  preferred  to  have  a 
few  reo-iinents  less  rather  than  to  leave  behind  these 
instruments  of  voluptuousness.* 

But  industriously  as  Alva  strove  to  relax  the  morals  of 
his  soldiers,  he  enforced  the  more  rigidly  a  strict  military 
discipline,  which  was  interrupted  only  by  a  victory  or 
rendered  less  severe  by  a  battle.  For  all  this  he  had,  he 
said,  the  authority  of  the  Athenian  General  Iphicrates, 
who  awai'ded  the  prize  of  valor  to  the  pleasure-loving 
and  rapacious  soldier.     The  more  irksome  the  restraint 

*  The  bacchanalian  procession  of  this  army  contrasted  strangely  enough 
with  the  gloomy  seriousness  and  pretended  sanctity  of  his  aim.  The  number 
of  these  women  was  so  great  that  to  restrain  the  disorders  and  quarrelling 
among  themselves  they  hit  upon  the  expedient  of  establishing  a  discipline  of 
their  own.  They  ranged  themselves  under  particular  flags,  marched  in  ranlvs 
and  sections,  and  in  admirable  military  order,  after  eacli  battalion,  and 
classed  themselves  with  strict  etiquette  according  to  their  rank  and  pay. 


258       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

by  which  the  passions  of  the  soldiers  were  kept  in  check, 
the  greater  must  liave  been  the  vehemence  with  wliich 
they  broke  forth  at  the  sole  outlet  which  was  left  open 
to  them. 

The  duke  divided  his  infantry,  which  was  about  nine 
thousand  strong,  and  chiefly  Spaniards,  into  four  brigades, 
and  gave  the  command  of  them  to  four  Spanish  officers. 
Alphonso  of  Ulloa  led  the  Neapolitan  brigade  of  nine 
companies,  amounting  to  three  thousand  two  hundred 
and  thirty  men;  Sancho  of  Lodogno  commanded  the 
Milan  brigade,  three  thousand  two  hundred  men  in  ten 
companies;  the  Sicilian  brigade,  with  the  same  number 
of  companies,  and  consisting  of  sixteen  hundred  men, 
was  under  Julian  Romero,  an  experienced  warrior,  who 
had  already  fought  on  Belgian  ground ;  *  while  Gonsalo 
of  Braccamonte  headed  that  of  Sardinia,  which  was 
raised  by  three  companies  of  recruits  to  the  full  comple- 
ment of  the  former.  To  every  company,  moreover,  were 
added  fifteen  Spanish  musqueteers.  The  horse,  in  all 
twelve  hundred  strong,  consisted  of  three  Italian,  two 
Albanian,  and  seven  Spanish  squadrons,  light  and  heavy 
cavalry,  and  the  chief  command  Avas  held  by  Ferdinand 
and  Frederick  of  Toledo,  the  two  sons  of  Alva.  Chiappin 
Vitelli,  Marquis  of  Cetona,  was  field-marshal ;  a  cele- 
brated general  whose  services  had  been  made  over  to  the 
King  of  Spain  by  Cosmo  of  Florence ;  and  Gabriel  Ser- 
bellon  was  general  of  artillery.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  lent 
Alva  an  exj^erienced  engineer,  Francis  Pacotto,  of  Ur- 
bino,  who  was  to  be  employed  in  the  erection  of  new 
fortifications.  His  standard  Avas  likewise  followed  by  a 
number  of  volunteers,  and  the  flower  of  the  Spanish 
nobility,  of  whom  the  greater  part  had  fought  under 
Charles  V.  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  before  Tunis.  Among 
these  were  Christopher  Mondragone,  one  of  the  ten 
Spanish  heroes  who,  near  Mtihlberg,  sAvam  across  the 
Elbe  with  their  swords  between  their  teeth,  and,  under 
a  shower  of  bullets  from  the  enemy,  brought  over  from 
the  opposite  shore  the  boats  which  the  emperor  required 
for  the  construction  of  a  bridge.     Sancho  of  Avila,  who 

*  The  same  officer  who  commanded  one  of  the  Spanish  regiments  about 
which  so  much  complaint  had  formerly  been  made  in  the  States-General. 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       259 

had  been  trained  to  war  under  Alva  himself,  Camillo  of 
Monte,  Francis  Ferdugo,  Karl  Davila,  Nicolaus  Basta, 
and  Count  Martinego,  all  fired  with  a  noble  ardor,  either 
to   commence   their   military  career   under   so   eminent 
a   leader,  or   by  another   glorious   campaign    under   his 
command   to   crown    the   fame   they  had    already  won. 
After  the  review  the  army  marched  in  three  divisions 
across  Mount  Cenis,  by  the  very  route  which   sixteen 
centuries  before  Hannibal  is  said  to  have  taken.     The 
duke  hmiself  led  the  van;  Ferdinand  of   Toledo,  with 
whom  was  associated  Lodogno  as  colonel,  the  centre; 
and  the  Marquis  of  Cetona  the  rear.     The  Commissary 
General,  Francis  of  Ibarra,  was  sent  before  with  General 
Serbellon  to  open  the  road  for  the  main  body,  and  get 
ready  the  supplies  at  the  several  quarters  for  the  night. 
The   places  which  tlie  van    left   in    the   morning   were 
entered  in  the  evening  by  the  centre,  which  in  its  turn 
made  room  on  the  following  day  for  the  rear.     Thus  tlie 
army  crossed  the  Alps  of  Savoy  by  regular  stages,  and 
with  the  fourteenth  day  completed  that  dangerous  pass- 
age.    A  French  army  of  observation  accompanied  it  side 
by  side  along  the  frontiers  of  Dauphine,  and  the  course  of 
the  Rhone,  and  the  allied  army  of  the  Genevese  followed 
it  on  the  right,  and  was  passed  by  it  at  a  distance  of 
seven  miles.     Both  these  armies  of  observation  carefully 
abstained  from  any  act  of   hostility,  and  were   merely 
intended  to  cover  their  own  frontiers.     As  the  Spanish 
legions  ascended  and  descended  the  steep  mountain  crags, 
or" while  they  crossed  the  rapid  Iser,  or  file  by  file  wound 
through  the  narrow  passes  of  the  rocks,  a  handful  of  men 
would  have  been  suflScient  to  put  an  entire  stop  to  their 
march,  and  to  drive  them  back  into  the  mountains,  where 
they  would  have  been  irretrievably  lost,  since  at  each 
place  of  encampment  supplies  were  provided  for  no  more 
than  a  single  day,  and  for  a  third  part  only  of  the  whole 
force.   fBut  a  supernatural  awe  and  dread  of  the  Spanish 
name  appeared  to  have  blinded  the  eyes  of  the  enemy  so 
that  they  did  not  perceive  their  advantage,  or  at  least 
did  not  venture  to  profit  by  it.     In  order  to  give  them 
as  little  opportunity  as  possible  of  remembering  it,  the 
Spanish  general  hastened  through  this  dangerous  pass. 


260        KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Convinced,  too,  that  if  his  troops  gave  the  slightest 
umbrage  he  was  lost,  the  strictest  discipline  was  main- 
tained during  the  march ;  not  a  single  peasant's  hut,  not 
a  single  field  was  injured;*  and  never,  perhaps,  in  the 
memory  of  man  was  so  numerous  an  army  led  so  far  in 
such  excellent  order.  Destined  as  this  army  was  for 
vengeance  and  murder,  a  malignant  and  baleful  star 
seemed  to  conduct  it  safe  through  all  dangers ;  and  it 
Avould  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  the  prudence  of  its 
general  or  the  blindness  of  its  enemies  is  most  to  be 
wondered  at. 

In  Franche  Comte,  four  squadrons  of  Burgundian 
cavalry,  newly-raised,  joined  the  main  army,  which,  at 
Luxembourg,  was  also  reinforced  by  three  regiments  of 
German  infantry  under  the  command  of  Counts  Eber- 
stein,  Schaumburg,  and  Lodrona.  From  Thionville, 
where  he  halted  a  few  days,  Alva  sent  his  salutations  to 
the  regent  by  Francis  of  Ibarra,  who  was,  at  the  same 
time,  directed  to  consult  her  on  the  quartering  of  the 
troops.  On  her  part,  Noircarmes  and  Barlaimont  were 
despatched  to  the  Spanish  cam]?  to  congratulate  the 
duke  on  his  arrival,  and  to  show  him  the  customary 
marks  of  honor.  At  the  same  time  they  were  directed 
to  ask  him  to  produce  the  powers  entrusted  to  him  by 
the  king,  of  which,  however,  he  only  showed  a  part. 
The  envoys  of  the  regent  were  followed  by  swarms  of 
the  Flemish  nobility,  who  thought  they  could  not  hasten 
soon  enough  to  conciliate  the  favor  of  the  new  viceroy, 
or  by  a  timely  submission  avert  the  vengeance  which  was 
preparing.  Among  them  was  Count  Egmont.  As  he 
came  forward  the  duke  pointed  him  out  to  the  by- 
standers. "Here  comes  an  arch-heretic,"  he  exclaimed, 
loud  enough  to  be  heard  by  Egmont  himself,  who,  sur- 
prised at  these  woi*ds,  stopped  and  changed  color.  But 
wlien  the  duke,  in  order  to  repair  his  imprudence,  went 
up  to  him  with  a  serene  countenance,  and  greeted  him 

*  Once  only  on  entering  Lorraine  three  horsemen  ventured  to  drive  away 
a  few  sheep  from  a  flock,  of  wliich  circumstance  the  duke  was  no  sooner 
informed  than  he  sent  bade  to  the  owner  wliat  liad  been  taken  from  him  and 
sentenced  the  offenders  to  be  hung.  This  sentence  was,  at  tlie  intercession 
of  the  Lorraine  general,  who  had  come  to  the  frontiers  to  pay  his  respects 
to  the  duke,  executed  on  only  one  of  the  three,  upon  whom  the  lot  fell  at  the 
drum- head. 


EEYOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        261 

witli  a  friendly  embrace,  the  Fleming  was  ashamed  of  his 
fears,  and  made  liglit  of  this  wariiing,  by  putting  some 
frivolous  interpretation  upon  it.  Egmont  sealed  this  new- 
friendship  with  a  present  of  two  valuable  chargers,  which 
Alva  accepted  with  a  grave  condescension. 

Upon  the  assurance  of  the  regent  that  the  provinces 
were  in  the  enjoyment  of  perfect  peace,  and  that  no 
opposition  was  to  be  apprehended  from  any  quarter,  the 
duke  discharged  some  German  regiments,  which  had 
liitherto  drawn  their  jjay  from  the  Netherlands.  Three 
thousand  six  hundred  men,  under  the  command  of  Lo- 
drona,  were  quartered  in  Antwerp,  from  which  town  the 
Walloon  garrison,  in  which  full  reliance  could  not  be 
placed,  was  withdrawn  ;  garrisons  pro])ortionably  stronger 
were  thrown  into  Ghent  and  other  important  places ; 
Alva  himself  marched  with  the  Milan  brigade  towards 
Brussels,  whither  he  was  accompanied  by  a  splendid  cor- 
tege of  the  noblest  in  the  land. 

Here,  as  in  all  the  other  towns  of  the  Netherlands,  fear 
and  terror  had  preceded  him,  and  all  who  were  conscious 
of  any  offences,  and  even  those  who  were  sensible  of 
none,  alike  awaited  his  approach  with  a  dread  similar  to 
that  with  which  criminals  see  the  coming  of  their  day  of 
trial.  All  who  could  tear  themselves  from  the  ties  of 
family,  property,  and  country  had  already  fled,  or  now 
at  last  took  to  flight.  The -advance  of  the  Spanish  army 
liad  already,  according  to  the  report  of  the  regent,  di- 
minished the  population  of  the  provinces  by  the  loss  of 
one  hundred  thousand  citizens,  and  this  general  flight 
still  continued.  But  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish  general 
could  not  be  more  hateful  to  the  people  of  the  Nether- 
lands than  it  was  distressing  and  dispiriting  to  the 
regent.  At  last,  after  so  many  years  of  anxiety, 
she  had  begun  to  taste  the  sweets  of  repose,  and  that 
absolute  authority,  which  had  been  the  long-cherished 
object  of  eight  years  of  a  troubled  and  difiicult  adminis- 
tration. This  late  fruit  of  so  much  anxious  industr}'-,  of 
so  many  cares  and  nightly  vigils,  was  now  to  be  wrested 
from  her  by  a  stranger,  who  was  to  be  placed  at  once  in 
possession  of  all  the  advantages  which  she  had  been 
forced  to  extract  from  adverse  circumstances,  by  a  long 


262       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

and  tedious  course  of  intrigue  and  patient  endurance. 
Another  was  lightly  to  bear  away  the  prize  of  prompti- 
tude, and  to  triumph  by  more  rapid  success  over  her 
superior  but  less  glittering  merits.  Since  the  departure 
of  the  minister,  Granvella,  she  liad  tasted  to  the  full  the 
pleasures  of  independence.  The  Mattering  liomage  of  the 
nobility,  Avhich  allowed  her  more  fully  to  enjoy  tlie 
sliadow  of  power,  the  more  they  deprived  lier  of  its  sub- 
stance, had,  by  degrees,  fostered  her  vanity  to  sudi  an 
extent,  that  she  at  last  estranged  by  lier  coldness  even 
the  most  upright  of  all  her  servants,  the  state  counsellor 
Viglius,  who  always  addressed  her  in  tlie  language  of 
truth.  All  at  once  a  censor  of  her  actions  was  ])laced  at 
her  side,  a  partner  of  her  power  was  associated  with  her, 
if  indeed  it  was  not  rather  a  master  who  was  forced  upon 
her,  whose  proud,  stubborn,  and  imperious  spirit,  Avliich 
no  courtesy  could  soften,  threatened  the  deadliest  wounds 
to  her  self-love  and  vanity.  To  prevent  his  arrival  she 
had,  in  her  repi-esentations  to  the  king,  vainly  exhausted 
every  political  argument.  To  no  purpose  had  she  iii-ged 
that  the  utter  ruin  of  the  commerce  of  the  Netherlands 
Avould  be  the  inevitable  consequence  of  this  introduction 
of  the  Spanish  troops ;  in  vain  had  she  assured  the  king 
that  peace  was  universally  restored,  and  reminded  him  of 
her  own  services  in  procuring  it,  which  deserved,  she 
thought,  a  better  guerdon  than  to  see  all  the  fruits  of  her 
labors  snatched  from  her  and  given  to  a  foreigner,  and 
more  than  all,  to  behold  all  the  good  which  she  had 
effected  destroyed  by  a  new  and  different  line  of  con- 
duct. Even  when  the  duke  had  already  crossed  Mount 
Cenis  she  made  one  more  attempt,  entreating  him  at 
least  to  diminish  his  army ;  but  that  also  failed,  for  the 
duke  insisted  upon  acting  up  to  the  jiowers  entrusted  to 
him.  In  poignant  grief  she  now  awaited  his  appi'oach, 
and  with  the  tears  she  shed  for  her  country  were 
mingled  those  of  offended  self-love. 

On  the  22d  of  August,  1567,  the  Duke  of  Alva  ap- 
peared before  the  gates  of  Brussels.  His  army  imme- 
diately took  up  their  quarters  in  the  suburbs,  and  he 
himself  made  it  his  first  duty  to  pay  his  respects  to  the 
sister  of  his  king.     She  gave  him  a  ])rivate  audience  on 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        263 

the  plea  of  suffering  from  sickness.  Either  the  mortifi- 
cation she  had  undergone  had  in  reality  a  s6rious  effect 
ui:»on  her  health,  or,  what  is  not  improbable,  she  had  re- 
course to  this  expedient  to  pain  his  haughty  spirit,  and 
in  some  degree  to  lessen  his  triumph.  He  delivered  to 
her  letters  from  the  king,  and  laid  before  her  a  copy  of 
his  own  appointment,  by  which  tlie  supreme  command 
of  the  whole  military  force  of  the  Netherlands  was  com- 
mitted to  him,  and  from  which,  therefore,  it  would  aj)- 
pear,  that  the  administration  of  civil  affairs  remained,  as 
heretofore,  in  the  hands  of  the  regent.  But  as  soon  as 
he  was  alone  with  her  he  produced  a  new  commission, 
which  was  totally  different  from  the  former.  According 
to  this,  the  power  was  delegated  to  him  of  making  war  at 
his  discretion,  of  erecting  fortifications,  of  appointing 
and  dismissing  at  pleasure  the  governors  of  provinces,  the 
commandants  of  towns,  and  other  officers  of  the  king ;  of 
instituting  inquiries  into  the  past  troubles,  of  punishing 
those  who  originated  them,  and  of  rewarding  the  loyal. 
Powers  of  this  extent,  which  placed  him  almost  on  a  level 
with  a  sovereign  prince,  and  far  surpassed  those  of  the 
reo-ent  herself,  caused  her  the  greatest  consternation,  and 
it  was  with  difficulty  that  she  could  conceal  her  emotion. 
She  asked  the  duke  whether  he  had  not  even  a  third 
commission,  or  some  special  orders  in  reserve  which  went 
still  further,  and  were  drawn  up  still  more  precisely,  to 
which  he  replied  distinctly  enough  in  the  affirmative,  but 
at  the  same  time  gave  her  to  understand  that  this  com- 
mission might  be  too  full  to  suit  the  present  occasion,  and 
would  be  better  brought  into  play  hereafter  with  due 
regard  to  tiiiie  and  circumstances.  A  few  days  after  his 
arrival  he  caused  a  copy  of  the  first  instructions  to  be 
laid  before  the  several  councils  and  the  states,  and  had 
tiiem  printed  to  insure  their  rapid  circulation.  As  the 
regent  resided  in  the  palace,  he  took  up  liis  quarters 
temporarily  in  Kuilemberg  house,  the  same  in  which  the 
association  of  the  Gueux  had  received  its  name,  and  be- 
fore which,  through  a  wonderful  vicissitude,  Spanish 
tyranny  now  planted  its  flag. 

A   dead   silence  reigned  in  Brussels,  broken    only  at 
times  by  the  unwonted  clang  of  arms.     The   duke  had 


2G4        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

entered  the  town  but  a  few  hours  when  his  attendants, 
like  bloodhounds  that  have  been  slipped,  dispersed  them- 
selves in  all  directions.  Everywliere  foreign  faces  were 
to  be  seen  ;  tlie  sti'eets  were  empty,  all  the  houses  care- 
fully closed,  all  amusements  suspended,  all  public  places 
deserted.  The  whole  metropolis  resembled  a  place 
visited  by  the  plague.  Acquaintances  hurried  on  without 
stopping  for  their  usual  greeting ;  all  hastened  on  the 
momenta  Spaniard  showed  himself  in  the  streets.  Every 
sound  startled  them,  as  if  it  were  the  knock  of  the  officials 
of  justice  at  their  doors;  the  nobility,  in  trembling 
anxiety,  kept  to  their  houses;  they  shunned  appearing  in 
public  lest  their  presence  should  remind  the  new  viceroy 
of  some  past  offence.  The  two  nations  now  seemed  to 
have  exchanged  characters.  The  Spaniard  had  become 
the  talkative  man  and  the  Brabanter  taciturn  ;  distrust 
and  fear  had  scared  away  the  spirit  of  cheerfulness  and 
mirth  ;  a  constrained  gravity  fettered  even  the  play  of  the 
features.  Every  moment  the  impending  blow  was  looked 
for  with  dread. 

This  general  straining  of  expectation  warned  the  duke 
to  hasten  the  accomplishment  of  his  plans  before  they 
should  be  anticipated  by  the  timely  flight  of  his  victims. 
His  first  object  was  to  secure  the  suspected  nobles,  in 
order,  at  once  and  forever,  to  deprive  tlie  faction  of  its 
leaders,  and  the  nation,  whose  freedom  was  to  be  crushed, 
of  all  its  supporters.  By  a  pretended  affability  he  had 
succeeded  in  lulling  their  first  alarm,  and  in  restoring 
Count  Egmont  in  particular  to  his  former  perfect  confi- 
dence, for  which  purpose  he  artfully  employed  his  sons, 
Ferdinand  and  Frederick  of  Toledo,  whose  companion- 
ableness  and  youth  assimilated  more  easily  with  the 
Flemish  character.  Bv  this  skilful  advice  he  succeeded 
also  in  enticing  Count  Horn  to  Brussels,  who  had  hitherto 
thought  it  advisable  to  watch  the  first  measures  of  the 
duke  from  a  distance,  but  now  suffered  himself  to  be 
seduced  by  the  good  fortune  of  his  friend.  Some  of  the 
nobility,  and  Count  Egmont  at  the  head  of  them,  even 
resumed  their  former  gay  style  of  living.  But  they 
themselves  did  not  do  so  with  their  whole  hearts,  and 
they  had  not  many  imitators.     Kuilemberg  house  was 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        265 

incessantly  besieged  by  a  miTnerons  crowd,  who  thronged 
around  the  person  of  tlie  new  viceroy,  and  exhibited  an 
affected  gayety  on  their  countenances,  while  their  hearts 
were  wrung  with  distress  and  fear.  Egniont  in  particular 
assumed  the  appearance  of  a  light  heart,  entertaining  the 
duke's  sons,  and  being  feted  by  them  in  return.  Mean- 
while, the  duke  was  fearful  lest  so  fair  an  opportunity 
for  the  accomplishment  of  his  plans  might  not  last  long, 
and  lest  some  act  of  imprudence  might  destroy  the 
feeling  of  secui'ity  which  had  tempted  both  his  victims 
voluntarily  to  put  themselves  into  his  power ;  he  only 
waited  for  a  third ;  Hogstraten  also  was  to  be  taken  in 
the  same  net.  Under  a  plausible  pretext  of  business  he 
therefore  summoned  him  to  the  metropolis.  At  the  same 
time  that  he  purposed  to  secure  the  three  counts  in 
Brussels,  Colonel  Lodrona  was  to  arrest  the  burgomaster, 
Strahlen,  in  Antwerp,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  suspected  of  having  favored  the  Calvinists ; 
another  officer  was  to  seize  the  private  secretary  of  Count 
Egmont,  whose  name  was  John  Cassembrot  von  Becker- 
zeel,  as  also  some  secretaries  of  Count  Horn,  and  was  to 
possess  themselves  of  their  papers. 

When  the  day  arrived  which  had  been  fixed  upon  for 
the  execution  of  this  jilan,  the  duke  summoned  all  the 
counsellors  and  knights  before  him  to  confer  with  them 
upon  matters  of  state.  On  this  occasion  the  Duke  of 
Arschot,  the  Counts  Mansfeld,  Barlaimont,  and  Arem- 
berg  attended  on  the  part  of  the  Netherlands,  and  on  the 
])art  of  the  Spaniards  besides  the  duke's  sons,  Vitelli, 
Serbellon,  and  Ibarra.  The  young  Count  Mansfeld,  who 
likewise  appeared  at  the  meeting,  received  a  sign  from 
his  father  to  withdraw  with  all  speed,  and  by  a  hasty 
flight  avoid  the  fate  which  was  impending  over  hira  as  a 
former  member  of  the  Geusen  league.  The  duke  pur- 
posely prolonged  the  consultation  to  give  time  before  he 
acted  for  the  arrival  of  the  couriers  from  Antwerp,  who 
were  to  brinsj  him  the  tidings  of  the  arrest  of  the  other 
parties.  To  avoid  exciting  any  suspicion,  the  engineer, 
Pacotto,  was  required  to  attend  the  meeting  to  lay  before 
it  the  plans  for  some  fortifications.  At  last  intelligence 
was  brought  him  that  Lodrona  had  successfully  executed 


2(50  KEVOLT   OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 

his  commission.  Upon  tliis  the  duke  dexterously  broke 
off  the  debate  and  dismissed  the  council.  And  now,  as 
Count  Egraont  was  about  to  repair  to  the  apartment  of 
Don  Ferdinand,  to  finish  a  game  that  he  had  commenced 
with  him,  the  captain  of  the  duke's  body  guard,  Sancho 
D'Avila,  stopped  him,  and  demanded  his  sword  in  the 
king's  name.  At  the  same  time  he  was  surrounded  by  a 
number  of  Spanish  soldiers,  Avho,  as  had  been  precon- 
certed, suddenly  advanced  from  their  concealment.  So 
unexpected  a  blow  deprived  Egmont  for  some  moments 
of  all  powers  of  utterance  and  recollection  ;  after  a  while, 
however,  he  collected  himself,  and  taking  his  sword  from 
his  side  with  dignified  composure,  said,  as  he  delivered  it 
into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniard,  "  This  sword  has  before 
this  on  more  than  one  occasion  successfully  defended  the 
king's  cause."  Another  Spanish  officer  arrested  Count 
Horn  as  he  was  returning  to  his  house  without  the  least 
suspicion  of  danger.  Horn's  first  inquiry  was  after 
Egmont.  On  being  told  that  the  same  fate  had  just  hap- 
pened to  his  friend  he  surrendered  himself  without  resist- 
ance. "  I  have  suffered  myself  to  be  guided  by  him,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  it  is  fair  that  I  should  share  liis  destiny."  The 
two  counts  were  placed  in  confinement  in  separate  apart- 
ments. While  this  was  going  on  in  the  interior  of 
Kuilemberg  house  the  whole  garrison  were  drawn  out 
under  arms  in  front  of  it.  No  one  knew  what  had  taken 
place  inside,  a  mysterious  terror  diffused  itself  throughout 
Brussels  until  rumor  spread  the  news  of  this  fatal  event. 
Each  felt  as  if  he  himself  were  the  sufferer ;  with  many 
indignation  at  Egmont's  blind  infatuation  preponderated 
over  sympathy  for  his  fate  ;  all  rejoiced  that  Orange  had 
escaped.  The  first  question  of  the  Cardinal  Granvella, 
too,  when  these  tidings  reached  him  in  Rome,  is  said  to 
have  been,  whether  they  had  taken  the  Silent  One  also. 
On  being  answered  in  the  negative  he  shook  his  head  : 
"  then  as  they  have  let  him  escape  they  have  got  noth- 
ing." Fate  ordained  better  for  the  Count  of  Hogstraten. 
Compelled  by  ill-health  to  travel  slowly,  he  was  met  by 
the  report  of  this  event  while  he  was  yet  on  his  way. 
He  hastily  turned  back,  and  fortunately  escaped  destruc- 
tion.    Immediately  after  Egmont's  seizure  a  writing  was 


REVOLT    OF, THE    NETHERLANDS.  267 

extorted  from  liim,  addressed  to  the  commandant  of 
the  citadel  of  Ghent,  ordering  that  officer  to  deliver  the 
fortress  to  the  Spanish  Colonel  Alphonso  d'Ulloa.  Upon 
this  the  two  counts  were  then  (after  they  had  been  for 
some  weeks  confined  in  Brussels)  conveyed  under  a  guard 
of  three  thousand  Spaniards  to  Ghent,  where  they  re- 
mained imprisoned  till  late  in  the  following  year.  In  the 
meantime  all  their  papers  had  been  seized.  Many  of  the 
first  nobility  who,  by  the  pretended  kindness  of  the  Dvdve 
of  Alva,  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  cajoled  into 
remaining  experienced  the  same  fate.  Capital  punish- 
ment was  also,  Avithout  further  delay,  inflicted  on  all  who 
before  the  duke's  arrival  had  been  taken  with  arms  in 
their  hands.  Upon  the  news  of  Egmont's  arrest  a  second 
body  of  about  twenty  thousand  inhabitants  took  up  the 
wanderer's  staff,  besides  the  one  hundred  thousand  who, 
prudently  declining  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish 
general,  had  already  placed  themselves  in  safety.*  After 
so  noble  a  life  had  been  assailed  no  one  counted  himself 
safe  any  longer;  but  many  found  cause  to  repent  that 
they  had  so  long  deferred  this  salutary  step ;  for  every 
day  flight  was  rendered  more  difficult,  for  the  duke 
ordered  all  the  ports  to  be  closed,  and  punished  the 
attempt  at  emigration  with  death.  The  beggars  were 
now  esteemed  fortunate,  who  had  abandoned  country 
and  property  in  order  to  preserve  at  least  their  liberty 
and  their  lives. 

alva's  first  measures,  and  departure  of  the 
duchess  of  parma. 

Alva's  first  step,  after  securing  the  most  suspected  of 
tlie  nobles,  Avas  to  restore  the  Inquisition  to  its  former 
authority,  to  put  the  decrees  of  Trent  again  in  force, 
al)olish  the  "  moderation,^''  and  promulgate  anew  the 
edicts  against  heretics  in  all  their  original  severity.     The 

*  A  great  part  of  these  fugitives  helped  to  strengthen  the  army  of  the 
Huguenots,  who  had  taken  occasion,  from  the  passage  of  the  Spanish  army 
through  Lorraine,  to  assemble  their  forces,  and  now  pressed  Charles  IX. 
hard.  On  these  grounds  the  French  court  thought  it  had  a  right  to  demand 
aid  from  the  regent  of  the  NetherLands.  It  asserted  that  the  Huguenots  had 
looked  upon  the  march  of  the  Spanish  army  as  the  result  of  a  preconcerted 
plan  which  had  been  formed  against  theiu  by  the  two  courts  at  Bayoune,  and 


2G8  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEHLANDS. 

court  of  Inquisition  in  Spain  had  j)ronounced  the  whole 
nation  of  the  Netherlands  trniltv  of  treason  in  the  hiijhest 
degree,  Catholics  and  lieterodox,  loyalists  and  rebels, 
without  distinction;  the  latter  as  having  offended  by 
overt  acts,  the  former  as  having  incurred  equal  guilt  by 
their  supineness.  From  this  sweej^ing  condemnation  a 
very  few  were  excepted,  whose  names,  however,  were 
purposely  reserved,  while  the  general  sentence  was  pub- 
licly confirmed  by  the  king.  Philip  declared  himself 
absolved  from  all  his  promises,  and  released  from  all 
engagements  which  the  regent  in  his  name  had  entered 
into  with  the  people  of  the  Netherlands,  and  all  the 
justice  which  they  had  in  future  to  expect  from  him  must 
depend  on  his  own  good-will  and  pleasure.  All  who  had 
aided  in  the  expulsion  of  the  minister,  Granvella,  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  petition  of  the  confederate  nobles, 
or  had  but  even  spoken  in  favor  of  it;  all  who  had  ])re- 
sented  a  petition  against  the  decrees  of  Trent,  against 
the  edicts  relating  to  religion,  or  against  the  installation 
of  the  bishops;  all  who  had  jn-rmitted  the  public  preach- 
ings, or  had  only  feebly  resisted  them ;  all  who  had  worn 
the  insignia  of  the  Gueux,  had  sung  Geusen  songs,  or 
who  in  any  way  whatsoever  had  manifested  their  joy  at 
the  establishment  of  the  league ;  all  wlio  had  sheltered 
or  concealed  the  reforming  preachers,  attended  Calvinis- 
tic  funerals,  or  had  even  merely  known  of  their  secret 
meetings,  and  not  given  information  of  them ;  all  Avho 
had  appealed  to  the  national  privileges;  all,  in  fine,  who 
had  expressed  an  opinion  that  they  ought  to  obey  God 
rather  than  man ;  all  these  indiscriminately  were  declared 
liable  to  the  penalties  which  the  law  imposed  upon  any 
violation  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  upon  high  treason  ; 
and  these  penalties  were,  according  to  the  instruction 
which  Alva  had  received,  to  be  executed  on  the  guilty 
persons  without  forbearance  or  favor;  without  regard  to 
rank,  sex,  or  age,  as  an  example  to  posterity,  and  "for  a 

that  this  had  roused  them  from  their  slumher.  That  consequently  it  behooved 
tlie  Spanish  court  to  assist  in  extricating  the  French  king  from  difficulties 
into  which  the  latter  had  been  brouglit  simply  by  the  march  of  the  Spanish 
troops.  Alva  actually  sent  the  Count  of  Aremberg  with  a  consiiierable  force 
to  join  the  army  of  the  Queen  Mother  in  France,  and  even  olfered  to  com- 
mand these  subsidiaries  in  person,  which,  however,  was  declined.  Strada, 
200.    Thuan,  541. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       2G9 

terror  to  all  future  times.  According  to  this  declaration 
there  was  no  longer  an  innocent  person  to  be  found  in 
the  whole  Netherlands,  and  the  new  viceroy  had  it  in  his 
power  to  make  a  fearful  choice  of  victims.  Property 
and  life  were  alike  at  his  command,  and  whoever  should 
have  the  good  fortune  to  preserve  one  or  both  must  re- 
ceive them  as  the  gift  of  his  generosity  and  humanity. 
By  this  stroke  of  policy,  as  refined  as  it  was  detestable, 
the  nation  was  disarmed,  and  unanimity  rendered  impos- 
sible. As  it  absolutely  depended  on  the  duke's  arbitrary 
will  upon  whom  the  sentence  should  be  carried  in  force 
which  had  been  passed  without  exception  upon  all,  eacli 
individual  kept  himself  quiet,  in  order  to  escape,  if  pos- 
sible, the  notice  of  the  viceroy,  and  to  avoid  drawing  the 
fatal  choice  upon  himself.  Every  one,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  whose  favor  he  was  pleased  to  make  an  excep- 
tion stood  in  a  degree  indebted  to  him,  and  was  person- 
ally under  an  obligation  which  must  be  measured  by  the 
value  he  set  upon  his  life  and  property.  As,  however, 
this  penalty  could  only  be  executed  on  the  , smaller  por- 
tion of  the  nation,  the  duke  naturally  secured  the  greater 
by  the  strongest  ties  of  fear  and  gratitude,  and  for  one 
whom  he  sought  out  as  a  victim  he  gained  ten  others 
whom  he  passed  over.  As  long  as  he  continued  true  to 
this  policy  he  remained  in  quiet  possession  of  his  rule, 
even  amid  the  streams  of  blood  which  he  caused  to  flow, 
and  did  not  forfeit  this  advantage  till  the  want  of  money 
compelled  him  to  impose  a  burden  upon  the  nation  which 
oppressed  all  indiscriminately. 

In  order  to  be  equal  to  this  bloody  occupation,  the 
details  of  which  were  fast  accumulating,  and  to  be  cer- 
tain of  not  losing  a  single  victim  through  the  want  of 
instruments;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  render  his  pro- 
ceedings independent  of  the  states,  with  whose  privileges 
they  Avere  so  much  at  variance,  and  Avho,  indeed,  were 
far  too  humane  for  him,  he  instituted  an  extraordinary 
court  of  justice.  This  court  consisted  of  twelve  crim- 
inal judges,  who,  according  to  their  instructions,  to  the 
very  letter  of  which  they  must  adhere,  Avere  to  try  and 
]>ronounce  sentence  upon  those  implicated  in  the  past 
disturbances.     The  mere  institution  of  such  a  board  was 


270       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

a  violation  of  the  liberties  of  the  country,  which  ex- 
pressly stipulated  that  no  citizen  should  be  tried  out  of 
his  own  province;  but  the  duke  filled  up  the  measure  of 
his  injustice  when,  contrary  to  the  most  sacred  privileges 
of  the  nation,  he  proceeded  to  give  seats  and  votes  in 
that  court  to  Spaniards,  the  open  and  avowed  enemies  of 
Belgian  liberty.  He  himself  was  the  j^resident  of  this 
court,  and  after  him  a  certain  licentiate,  Vargas,  a  Span- 
iard by  birth,  of  whose  iniquitous  character  the  historians 
of  both  parties  are  unanimous ;  cast  out  like  a  plague- 
spot  from  his  own  country,  where  he  had  violated  one  of 
his  wards,  he  was  a  shameless,  hardened  villain,  in  whose 
mind  avarice,  lust,  and  the  thirst  for  blood  struggled  for 
ascendancy.  The  principal  members  were  Count  Arem- 
berg,  Philip  of  Noircarmes,  and  Charles  of  Barlaimont, 
who,  however,  never  sat  in  it;  Hadrian  Nicolai,  chan- 
cellor of  Gueldres;  Jacob  Mertens  and  Peter  Asset, 
presidents  of  Artois  and  Flanders;  Jacob  Hesselts  and 
John  de  la  Porte,  counsellors  of  Ghent ;  Louis  del  Koi, 
doctor  of  theology,  and  by  birth  a  Spaniard ;  John  du 
Bois,  king's  advocate;  and  De  la  Torre,  secretary  of  the 
court.  In  compliance  with  the  representations  of  Viglius 
the  privy  council  was  spared  any  part  in  this  tribunal ; 
nor  was  any  one  introduced  into  it  from  the  great  coun- 
cil at  Malines.  The  votes  of  the  members  were  only 
recommendatory,  not  conclusive,  the  final  sentence  being 
reserved  by  the  duke  to  himself.  No  particular  time  was 
fixed  for  tlie  sitting  of  the  court ;  the  members,  however, 
assembled  at  noon,  as  often  as  the  duke  thought  good. 
But  after  the  expiration  of  the  third  month  Alva  began 
to  be  less  frequent  in  his  attendance,  and  at  last  resigned 
his  place  entirely  to  his  favorite,  Vargas,  who  filled  it 
Avith  such  odious  fitness  that  in  a  short  time  all  the  mem- 
bers, with  the  exception  merely  of  the  Spanish  doctor, 
Del  Rio,  and  the  secretary,  De  la  Torre,*  weary  of  the 
atrocities  of  which  they  were  compelled  to  be  both  eye- 
witnesses and  accomplices,  remained  away  from  the  as- 
sembly.    It  is  revolting  to  the  feelings  to  think  how  the 

*  The  sentences  passed  upon  the  most  eminent  persons  (for  example,  the 
Eentence  of  death  passed  upon  Strahlen,  the  burgomaster  of  Antwerp),  were 
signed  only  by  Vargas,  Del  Kio,  and  De  la  Torre. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        271 

lives  of  the  noblest  and  best  were  thus  placed  at  the 
mercy  of  Spanish  vagabonds,  and  how  even  the  sanctua- 
ries of  the  nation,  its  deeds  and  charters,  were  unscrupu- 
lously ransacked,  the  seals  broken,  and  the  most  secret 
contracts  between  the  sovereign  and  the  state  profaned 
and  exposed.* 

From  the  council  of  twelve  (which,  from  the  object  of 
its  institution,  was  called  the  council  for  disturbances, 
but  on  account  of  its  proceedings  is  more  generally 
known  under  the  appellation  of  the  council  of  blood,  a 
name  which  the  nation  in  their  exasperation  bestowed 
npon  it),  no  appeal  was  allowed.  Its  proceedings  could 
not  be  revised.  Its  verdicts  were  irrevocable  and  inde- 
pendent of  all  other  authority.  No  other  tribunal  in  the 
country  conld  take  cognizance  of  cases  which  related  to 
the  late  insurrection,  so  that  in  all  the  other  courts  jus- 
tice was  nearly  at  a  standstill.  The  great  council  at 
Malines  was  as  good  as  abolished  ;  the  authority  of  the 
council  of  state  entirely  ceased,  insomuch  that  its  sittings 
were  discontinued.  On  some  rare  occasions  the  duke 
conferred  with  a  few  members  of  the  late  assembly,  but 
even  when  this  did  occur  the  conference  was  held  in  his 
cabinet,  and  was  no  more  than  a  private  consultation, 
witliout  any  of  the  proper  forms  being  observed.  No 
privilege,  no  charter  of  immunity,  however  carefully  pro- 
tected, had  any  weight  with  the  council  for  disturbances.! 
It  compelled  all  deeds  and  contracts  to  be  laid  before  it, 
and  often  forced  upon  them  the  most  sti-ained  interpeta- 
tions  and  alterations.  If  the  duke  caused  a  sentence  to 
be  drawn  out  which  there  was  reason  to  fear  might  be 
opposed  by  the  states  of  Brabant,  it  was  legalized  with- 

*  For  an  example  of  the  unfeeling:  le\'ity  "(vitli  whieli  the  most  important 
matters,  even  decisions  in  cases  of  life  and  death,  were  treated  in  this  san- 
guinary council,  it  mav  serve  to  relate  what  is  told  of  the  Counsellor  Hesselts. 
He  was  generally  asleep  during  the  meeting,  and  when  his  turn  came  to  vote 
on  a  sentence  of"  death  he  used  to  cry  out.  still  half  asleep  :  "Ad  patibulum  ! 
Ad  patibulum  !  "  so  glibly  did  his  tongue  utter  this  word.  It  is  further  to  be 
remarked  of  this  Hesselts,  that  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  President  Viglius, 
had  expressly  stipulated  in  the  marriage-contract  that  he  should  resign  the 
dismal  oifice  of  attorney  for  the  king,  which  made  him  detested  by  the  whole 
nation.    Vigl.  ad  Hopp.  Ixvii.,  L. 

t  V'argas,  in  a  few  words  of  barbarous  Latin,  demolished  at  once  the 
boasted  liberties  of  the  Netherlands.  "Non  curamus  vestros  privilegios," 
ho  replied  to  one  who  wished  to  plead  the  immunities  of  the  University  of 
Louvain. 


272       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

out  tlie  Brabant  seal.  Tlie  most  sacred  riglits  of  indi- 
viduals were  assailed,  and  a  tyranny  without  example 
forced  its  arbitrary  will  even  into  the  circle  of  domestic 
life.  As  the  Protestants  and  rebels  had  hitherto  con- 
trived to  strengthen  their  party  so  much  by  marriages 
with  the  first  families  in  the  country,  the  duke  issued  an 
edict  forbidding  all  Netherlanders,  whatever  might  be 
their  rank  or  office,  under  pain  of  death  and  contiscatiou 
of  property,  to  conclude  a  marriage  without  previously 
obtaining  his  permission. 

All  whom  the  council  for  disturbances  thought  proper 
to  summon  before  it  were  compelled  to  appear,  clergy  as 
well  as  laity;  the  most  venerable  heads  of  the  senate,  as 
well  as  the  reprobate  rabble  of  the  Iconoclasts.  Whoever 
did  not  present  himself,  as  indeed  scarcely  artybody  did, 
was  declared  an  outlaw,  and  liis  property  was  confiscated  ; 
but  those  who  were  rash  or  foolish  enough  to  appear,  or 
who  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  seized,  were  lost  without 
redemption.  Twenty,  forty,  often  fifty  were  summoned 
at  the  same  time  and  from  the  same  town,  and  the  richest 
were  always  the  first  on  whom  the  thunderbolt  descended. 
The  meaner  citizens,  who  possessed  nothing  that  could 
render  their  country  and  their  homes  dear  to  them,  were 
taken  unawares  and  arrested  without  any  previous  cita- 
tion. Many  eminent  merchants,  who  had  at  their  disposal 
fortunes  of  from  sixty  thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand 
florins,  were  seen  with  their  hands  tied  behind  their 
backs,  dragged  like  common  vagabomls  at  tlie  horse's  tail 
to  execution,  and  in  Valenciennes  fifty-five  persons  were 
decapitated  at  one  time.  AH  the  prisons  —  and  the  duke 
immediately  on  commencing  his  administration  had  built 
a  great  number  of  them  —  were  crammed  full  with  the 
accused  ;  hanging,  beheading,  quartering,  burning  were 
the  prevailing  and  oi'dinary  occupations  of  the  day;  the 
punishment  of  the  galleys  and  banishment  were  more 
rarely  heard  of,  for  there  was  scarcely  any  offence  which 
was  reckoned  too  trival  to  be  punished  with  death.  Im- 
mense sums  were  thus  brought  into  the  treasury,  which, 
however,  served  rather  to  stimulate  the  new  viceroy's 
and  his  colleagues'  thirst  for  gold  than  to  quench  it.  It 
seemed  to  be  his  insane  purj^ose  to  make  beggars  of  the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       273 

whole  people,  and  to  tlirow  all  their  riches  into  the  hands 
of  the  king  and  his  servants.^  The  yearly  income  derived 
from  these  confiscations  was  computed  to  equal  the  reve- 
nues of  the  first  Isiingdoms  of  Europe ;  it  is  said  to  have 
been  estimated,  in  a  report  furnished  to  the  king,  at  the 
incredible  amount  of  twenty  million  of  dollars.  But 
these  proceedings  were  the  more  inhuman,  as  they  often 
bore  hardest  precisely  upon  the  very  persons  who  were 
the  most  jDeaceful  subjects,  and  most  orthodox  Roman 
Catholics,  whom  they  could  not  want  to  injure.  When- 
ever an  estate  was  confiscated  all  the  creditors  wlio  iiad 
claims  upon  it  were  defrauded.  Tlie  hospitals,  too,  and 
public  institutions,  which  such  properties  had  contributed 
to  suppoi't,  were  now  ruined,  and  the  poor,  who  had 
formerly  drawn  a  pittance  from  this  source,  were  com- 
pelled to  see  their  only  spring  of  comfort  dried  u]). 
Whoever  ventured  to  urge  their  well-grounded  claims  on 
the  forfeited  property  before  the  council  of  twelve  (for 
no  other  tribunal  dared  to  interfere  with  these  inquiries), 
consumed  their  substance  in  tedious  and  expensive  pro- 
ceedings, and  were  reduced  to  beggary  before  they  saw 
the  end  of  them.  The  histories  of  civilized  states  furnish 
but  one  instance  of  a  similar  perversion  of  justice,  of  such 
violation  of  the  rights  of  property,  and  of  such  waste  of 
human  life ;  but  Cinna,  Sylla,  and  Marius  entered  van- 
quislied  Rome  as  incensed  victors,  and  practised  without 
disguise  what  the  viceroy  of  the  Netherlands  performed 
under  the  venerable  veil  of  the  laws. 

Up  to  the  end  of  the  year  1567  the  king's  arrival  had 
been  confidently  expected,  and  the  well-disposed  of  the 
people  had  placed  all  their  last  hopes  on  this  event.  The 
vessels,  which  Philip  had  caused  to  be  equipped  expressly 
for  the  purpose  of  meeting  him,  still  lay  in  the  liarbor  of 
Flushing,  ready  to  sail  at  the  first  signal ;  and  the  town 
of  Brussels  had  consented  to  receive  a  Spanish  garrison, 
simply  because  the  king,  it  was  j^retended,  was  to  reside 
within  its  walls.  But  this  hope  gradually  vanished,  as  he 
put  off  the  journey  from  one  season  to  the  next,  and  the 
new  viceroy  very  soon  began  to  exhibit  powers  which 
announced  him  less  as  a  precursor  of  royalty  than  as  an 
absolute    minister,    whose   presence    made   that   of    the 


274        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

monarch  entirely  superfluous.  To  coni})lete  the  distress 
of  the  provinces  their  last  good  angel  was  now  to  leave 
them  in  the  person  of  the  regent. 

From  the  moment  when  the  production  of  the  duke's 
extensive  powers  left  no  doubt  remaining  as  to  the  prac- 
tical termination  of  her  own  rule,  Margaret  had  formed 
the  resolution  of  relinquishing  the  name  also  of  regent. 
To  see  a  successor  in  the  actual  possession  of  a  dignity 
which  a  nine  years'  enjoyment  had  made  indispensable  to 
her;  to  see  the  authority,  the  glory,  the  s])lendoi',  the 
adoration,  and  all  the  marks  of  respect,  which  are  the 
usual  concomitants  of  supreme  power,  pass  over  to 
another;  and  to  feel  that  she  had  lost  that  Avhich  she 
could  never  forget  she  had  once  held,  was  more  than  a 
woman's  mind  could  endure  ;  moreover,  the  Duke  of  Alva 
was  of  all  men  the  least  calculated  to  make  her  feel  her 
privation  the  less  painful  by  a  forbearing  use  of  his  newly- 
acquired  dignity.  The  tranquillity  of  the  country,  too, 
which  was  put  in  jeopardy  by  this  divided  rule,  seemed 
to  imjjose  upon  tlie  duchess  the  necessity  of  abdicating. 
Many  governors  of  provinces  refused,  without  an  express 
order  from  the  court,  to  receive  commands  from  the  duke 
and  to  recoofnize  him  as  co-resrent. 

The  rapid  change  of  their  point  of  attraction  could  not 
be  met  by  the  courtiers  so  composedly  and  imperturba- 
bly  but  that  the  duchess  observed  the  alteration,  and 
bitterly  felt  it.  Even  the  few  who,  like  State  Counsellor 
Viglius,  still  firmly  adhered  to  her,  did  so  less  from  at- 
tachment to  her  person  than  from  vexation  at  being 
displaced  by  novices  and  foreigners,  and  from  being  too 
j)roud  to  serve  a  fresh  apprenticeship  under  a  new  viceroy. 
But  far  the  greater  number,  with  all  their  endeavors  to 
keep  an  exact  mean,  could  not  help  making  a  difference 
between  the  homage  they  paid  to  the  rising  sun  and  that 
which  they  bestowed  on  the  setting  luminary.  The  royal 
palace  in  Brussels  became  more  and  more  deserted,  while 
the  throng  at  Kuilemberg  house  daily  increased.  But 
what  wounded  the  sensitiveness  of  the  duchess  most 
acutely  was  the  arrest  of  Horn  and  Egmont,  which  was 
])lanned  and  executed  by  the  duke  Avithout  her  knowledge 
or  consent,  just  as  if  there  had  been  no  such  person  as 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       275 

herself  in  existence.  Alva  did,  indeed,  after  the  act  was 
done,  endeavor  to  appease  her  by  declaring  that  the 
design  had  been  purposely  kept  secret  from  her  in  order 
to  spare  her  name  from  being  mixed  up  in  so  odious  a 
transaction ;  but  no  such  considerations  of  delicacy  could 
close  the  wound  which  had  been  inflicted  on  her  ])ride. 
In  order  at  once  to  escape  all  risk  of  similar  insults,  of 
which  the  present  was  probably  only  a  forerunner,  she 
despatched  her  private  secretary,  Macchiavell,  to  the  court 
of  her  brother,  there  to  solicit  earnestly  for  permission  to 
resign  the  regency.  The  request  was  granted  without 
difficulty  by  tlie  king,  who  accompanied  his  consent  with 
every  mark  of  his  highest  esteem.  He  would  put  aside 
(so  the  king  expressed  himself)  his  own  advantage  and 
that  of  the  provinces  in  order  to  oblige  his  sister.  He 
sent  a  present  of  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  allotted  to 
her  a  yearly  pension  of  twenty  thousand.*  At  the  same 
time  a'  diploma  was  forwarded  to  the  Duke  of  Alva,  con- 
stituting him,  in  her  stead,  viceroy  of  all  the  Netherlands, 
with  unlimited  powers. 

Gladly  w^ould  Margaret  have  learned  that  she  was  per- 
mitted to  resign  the  regency  before  a  solemn  assembly  of 
the  states,  a  wish  which  she  had  not  very  obscurely  hinted 
to  the  king.  But  she  was  not  gratified.  She  Avas  partic- 
ularly fond  of  solemnity,  and  tlie  example  of  the  Emperor, 
her  father,  who  had  exhibited  the  extraordinary  spectacle 
of  his  abdication  of  the  crown  in  this  very  city,  seemed 
to  have  great  attractions  for  her.  As  she  was  compelled 
to  part  with  supreme  power,  she  could  scarcely  be  blamed 
for  wishing  to  do  so  Avith  as  much  splendor  as  possible. 
Moreover,  she  had  not  failed  to  observe  liow  much  the 
general  hatred  of  the  duke  had  effected  in  her  own  favor, 
and  she  looked,  therefore,  the  more  wistfully  forward  to 
a  scene,  which  promised  to  be  at  once  so  flattering  to  her 

*  "Which,  however,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  very  punctually  paid,  if 
a  pamphlet  may  be  trusted  which  was  printed  during  her  lifetime.  (It  bears 
the  title :  Discours  sur  la  Blessure  de  Mnnseifrneur  Prince  d'Oransce,  1582, 
without  notice  of  the  place  where  it  was  printed,  and  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Elector's  library  at  Dresden.)  She  languished,  it  is  there  stated,  at  Xnmur 
in  poverty,  and  so  ill-supported  by  her  son  (tlic  tlien  governor  of  the  Nether- 
lands), that  her  own  secretary,  Aldrobandin,  called  her  soiourn  there  an  exile. 
But  the  writer  goes  on  to  ask  what  better  treatment  could  she  expect  from  a 
son  who,  when  still  verv  young,  being  on  a  visit  to  her  at  Brussels,  snapped 
his  fingers  at  her  behind  her  back. 


276        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

and  so  affecting.  She  would  li:ne  been  glad  to  mingle 
her  own  tears  with  those  which  she  lioped  to  see  shed  by 
the  Netherlanders  for  their  good  regent.  Thus  the  bitter- 
ness of  her  descent  from  the  throne  would  have  been  al- 
leviated by  the  exjjression  of  general  sympathy.  Little 
as  she  had  done  to  merit  the  general  esteem  during  the 
nine  years  of  her  administration,  while  fortune  smiled 
upon  her,  and  the  approbation  of  her  sovereign  was  the 
limit  to  all  her  wishes,  yet  now  the  sympathy  of  the 
nation  had  acquired  a  value  in  her  eyes  as  the  only  thing 
which  could  in  some  degree  compensate  to  her  for  the 
disappointment  of  all  her  other  hopes.  Fain  would  she 
have  persuaded  herself  that  she  had  become  a  voluntary 
sat?rifice  to  her  goodness  of  lieart  and  her  too  humane 
feelings  towards  the  Netherlanders.  As,  however,  the 
king  was  very  far  from  being  disposed  to  incur  any 
danger  by  calling  a  general  assembly  of  the  states,  in 
order  to  gratify  a  mere  caprice  of  his  sister,  she  was 
obliged  to  content  herself  with  a  farewell  letter  to  them. 
In  this  document  she  went  over  her  whole  administra- 
tion, recounted,  not  without  ostentation,  the  difficulties 
"with  which  she  had  had  to  struggle,  the  evils  which,  by 
her  dexterity,  she  had  prevented,  and  wound  up  at  last 
by  saying  that  she  left  a  finished  work,  and  had  to  transfer 
to  her  successor  nothing  but  the  punishment  of  offenders. 
The  king,  too,  was  repeatly  compelled  to  hear  the  same 
statement,  and  she  left  nothing  undone  to  arrogate  to 
herself  the  glory  of  any  future  advantages  wliich  it  might 
be  the  good  fortune  of  the  duke  to  realize.  Her  own 
merits,  as  something  which  did  not  admit  of  a  doubt,  but 
was  at  the  same  time  a  burden  oppressive  to  her  modesty, 
she  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  king. 

Dispassionate  posterity  may,  nevertlieless,  hesitate  to 
subscribe  unreservedly  to  this  favorable  opinion.  Even 
though  the  united  voice  of  her  contemporaries,  and  the 
testimony  of  the  Netherlands  themselves  vouch  for  it,  a 
third  party  will  not  be  denied  the  right  to  examine  her 
claims  with  stricter  scrutiny.  The  popular  mind,  easily 
affected,  is  but  too  ready  to  count  the  absence  of  a  vice 
as  an  additional  virtue,  and,  under  the  pressure  of  ex- 
isting evil,  to  give   excess  of   praise   for  past   benefits. 


KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLAISUS.        277 

The  Netherlander  seems  to  have  concentrated  nil  his 
liatred  upon  tlie  Spanish  name.  To  lay  the  blame  of  the 
national  evils  on  the  regent  would  tend  to  remove  from 
the  kino-  and  his  minister  the  curses  which  he  would 
rather  sliower  upon  them  alone  and  undividedly;  and 
the  Duke  of  Alva's  government  of  the  Netherlands  was, 
I)erhaps,  not  the  proper  point  of  view  from  which  to  test 
the  merits  of  his  predecessor.  It  was  undoubtedly  no 
light  task  to  meet  the  king's  expectations  without  in- 
fnnging  the  rights  of  the  people  and  the  duties  of  human- 
ity-j^biit  in  struggling  to  effect  these  two  contradictory 
objects  Margaret  had  accomplished  neither.  She  had 
deeply  injured  the  nation,  while  comparatively  she  had 
done  little  service  to  the  king.  It  is  true  that  she  at  last 
crushed  the  Protestant  faction,  but  the  accidental  out- 
break of  the  Iconoclasts  assisted  her  in  this  more  than  all 
her  dexterity.  She  certainly  succeeded  by  her  intrigues 
in  dissolving  the  league  of  the  nobles,  but  not  until  the 
first  blow  had  been  struck  at  its  roots  by  internal  dissen- 
sions. The  object,  to  secure  which  she  had  for  many 
years  vainly  exhaused  her  whole  policy,  was  effected  at 
last  by  a  single  enlistment  of  troops,  for  which,  however, 
the  orders  were  issued  from  Madrid.  She  delivered  to 
the  duke,  no  doubt,  a  tranquillized  country  ;  but  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  the  dread  of  his  approach  had  the 
chief  share  in  tranquillizing  it.  By  her  reports  she  led 
the  council  in  Spain  astray ;  because  she  never  infoi-med 
it  of  the  disease,  but  only  of  the  occasional  symptoms; 
never  of  the  universal  feeling  and  voice  of  the  nation,  but 
only  of  the  misconduct  of  factions.  Her  faulty  adminis- 
tration, moreover,  drew  the  people  into  the  crime,  because 
she  exasperated  without  sufiiciently  awing  them.  She  it 
Avas  that  brought  the  murderous  Alva  into  the  country 
l)y  leading  the'^  king  to  believe  that  the  disturbances  in 
the  provinces  were  to  be  ascribed,  not  so  much  to  the 
severity  of  the  royal  ordinances,  as  to  the  unworthincss 
of  those  who  were  charged  with  their  execution.  Mar- 
garet possessed  natural  capacity  and  intellect ;  and  an 
acquired  political  tact  enabled  her  to  meet  any  ordinary 
case ;  but  she  wanted  that  creative  genius  Avhich,  for  ncAV 
and  extraordinary  emergencies,  invents  new  maxims,  or 


278       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Wisely  oversteps  old  ones.  In  a  country  where  honesty 
was  the  best  policy,  she  adopted  tlie  unfortunate  plan  of 
practising  her  insidious  Italian  policy,  and  thereby  sowed 
the  seeds  of  a  fatal  distrust  in  tlie  minds  of  the  people. 
The  indulgence  which  has  been  so  liberally  imputed  to 
her  as  a  merit  was,  in  truth,  extorted  from  lier  weakness 
and  timidity  by  the  courageous  opposition  of  the  nation  ; 
she  had  never  departed  from  the  strict  letter  of  the  royal 
commands  by  her  own  spontaneous  resolution  ;  never  did 
the  gentle  feelings  of  innate  humanity  lead  her  to  misin- 
terpret the  cruel  purport  of  her  instructions.  Even  the 
few  concessions  to  which  necessity  compelled  her  were 
granted  witli  an  uncertain  and  shrinking  hand,  as  if 
fearing  to  give  too  much ;  and  she  lost  the  fruit  of  her 
benefactions  because  she  mutilated  them  by  a  sordid 
closeness.  What  in  all  the  other  relations  of  her  life  she 
was  too  little,  she  was  on  the  throne  too  much  —  a 
woman !  She  had  it  in  her  power,  after  Granvella's 
expulsion,  to  become  the  benefactress  of  the  Belgian 
nation,  but  she  did  not.  Her  supreme  good  was  the 
approbation  of  her  king,  her  greatest  misfortune  his  dis- 
pleasure ;  with  all  the  eminent  qualities  of  her  mind  she 
remained  an  ordinary  character  because  her  heart  was 
destitute  of  native  nobility.  She  used  a  melancholy 
power  with  much  moderation,  and  stained  her  govern- 
7iient  with  no  deed  of  arbitrary  cruelty ;  nay,  if  it  had 
depended  on  her,  she  would  have  always  acted  humanely. 
Years  afterwards,  when  her  idol,  Philip  II.,  had  long  for- 
gotten her,  the  Netherlanders  still  honored  her  memory ; 
but  she  was  far  from  deserving  the  glory  which  her  suc- 
cessor's inhumanity  reflected  upon  her. 

She  left  Brussels  about  the  end  of  December,  1567. 
The  duke  escorted  her  as  far  as  the  frontiers  of  Brabant, 
and  there  left  her  under  the  protection  of  Count  Mans- 
feld  in  order  to  hasten  back  to  the  metropolis  and  show 
himself  to  the  Netherlanders  as  sole  regent. 


TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  COUNTS  EGMONT  AND 

HORN. 

The  two  counts  were  a  few  weeks  after  their  arrest 
conveyed  to  Ghent  under  an  escort  of  tliree  thousand 
Spaniards,  wliere  they  were  confined  in  the  citadel  for 
more  than  eight  months.  Their  trial  commenced  in 
due  form  before  the  council  of  tAvelve,  and  tJie  solicitor- 
general,  John  Du  Bois,  conducted  the  proceedings.  The 
indictment  against  Egmont  consisted  of  ninety  counts, 
and  that  against  Horn  of  sixty.  It  would  occupy  too 
much  space  to  introduce  them  here.  Every  action,  how- 
ever innocent,  every  omission  of  duty,  was  interpreted  on 
the  principle  which  had  been  laid  down  in  the  ojiening 
of  the  indictment,  "  that  the  two  counts,  in  conjunction 
with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  had  planned  the  overthrow 
of  the  royal  authority  in  the  Netherlands,  and  the  usurp- 
ation of  the  government  of  the  country;"  the  expulsion 
of  Granvella;  the  embassy  of  Egmont  to  Madrid;  the 
confederacy  of  the  Gueux ;  the  concessions  Avhich  they 
made  to  the  Protestants  in  the  provinces  under  their 
government  —  all  were  made  to  have  a  connection  with, 
and  reference  to,  this  deliberate  design.  Thus  importance 
was  attached  to  the  most  insignificant  occurrences,  and 
one  action  made  to  darken  and  discolor  another.  By 
taking  care  to  treat  each  of  the  charges  as  in  itself  a 
treasonable  offence  it  Avas  the  more  easy  to  justify  a 
sentence  of  high  treason  by  the  whole. 

The  accusations  were  sent  to  each  of  the  prisoners,  who 
were  requii-ed  to  reply  to  them  within  five  days.  After 
doing  so  they  were  allowed  to  employ  solicitors  and  advo- 
cates, who  were  permitted  free  access  to  them  ;  but  as 
they  were  accused  of  treason  then-  friends  were  pro- 
hibited from  visiting  them.  Count  Egmont  employed  for 
his  solicitor  Von  Landas,  and  made  choice  of  a  few  emi- 
nent advocates  from  Brussels. 

The  first  step  was  to  demur  against  the  tribunal  which 
was  to  try  them,  since  by  the  privilege  of  their  order 
they,  as  Knights  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  were  nmenable 
only  to  the  king  himself,  the  grand  mastei-.      But  this 

279 


280  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEKLANDS. 

demurrer  was  overruled,  and  tlicy  were  required  to  pro- 
duce their  witnesses,  in  default  of  which  they  were  to  be 
proceeded  against  in  contumaciam.  Egmont  had  satis- 
factorily answered  to  eighty-two  counts,  while  Count 
Horn  had  refuted  the  charges  against  him,  article  by 
article.  The  accusation  and  the  defence  are  still  extant; 
on  that  defence  every  ini]iartial  tribunal  would  have 
acquitted  them  both.  The  Procurator  Fiscal  pressed  for 
the  production  of  their  evidence,  and  the  Duke  of  Alva 
issued  his  repeated  commands  to  use  despatch.  They 
delayed,  however,  from  week  to  week,  while  they  renewed 
their  protests  against  the  illegality  of  the  court.  At  last 
the  duke  assigned  them  nine  days  to  produce  their  proofs; 
on  the  lapse  of  that  period  they  were  to  be  declared 
guilty,  and  as  having  forfeited  all  right  of  defence. 

During  tlie  progress  of  the  trial  the  relations  and 
friends  of  the  two  counts  were  not  idle.  Egmont's  wife, 
by  birth  a  duchess  of  Bavaria,  addressed  petitions  to  tlie 
princes  of  the  German  empire,  to  the  Emperor,  and  to 
the  King  of  Spain.  The  Countess  Horn,  mother  of  tlie 
imprisoned  count,  who  was  connected  by  the  ties  of 
friendship  or  of  blood  with  the  principal  royal  families 
of  Germany,  did  the  same.  All  alike  protested  loudly 
against  this  illegal  proceeding,  and  appealed  to  the  liberty 
of  the  German  empire,  on  Avhich  Horn,  as  a  count  of  the 
empire,  had  special  claims  ;  the  liberty  of  the  Netherlands 
and  the  privileges  of  the  Order  of  the  Golden  Fleece 
were  likewise  insisted  upon.  The  Countess  Egmont 
succeeded  in  obtaining  the  intercession  of  almost  every 
German  court  in  behalf  of  her  husband.  The  King  of 
Spain  and  his  viceroy  were  besieged  by  applications  in 
behalf  of  the  accused,  which  were  referred  from  one  to 
the  other,  and  made  light  of  by  both.  Countess  Horn 
collected  certificates  from  all  the  Knights  of  the  Golden 
Fleece  in  Spain,  Germany,  and  Italy  to  prove  the  privi- 
leges of  the  order.  Alva  rejected  them  wdth  a  declara- 
tion that  they  had  no  force  in  such  a  case  as  the  present. 
"  The  crimes  of  which  the  covints  are  accused  relate  to 
the  affairs  of  the  Belgian  provinces,  and  he,  the  duke, 
was  appointed  by  the  king  sole  judge  of  all  matters  con- 
nected with  those  countries." 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       281 

Four  months  had  been  allowed  to  the  solicitor-general 
to  draw  up  the  indictment,  and  live  were  granted  to  tlie 
two  counts  to  prepare  for  their  defence.  But  instead  of 
losing  their  time  and  trouble  in  adducing  their  evidence, 
which,  perhaps,  Avould  have  profited  them  but  little,  tliey 
preferred  wasting  it  in  protests  against  the  judges,  which 
availed  them  still  less.  By  the  former  course  they  would 
probably  have  delayed  the  final  sentence,  and  in  the  time 
thus  gained  the  powerful  intercession  of  their  friends 
might  perhaps  have  not  been  ineffectual.  By  obstinately 
persisting  in  denying  the  competency  of  the  tribunal  which 
was  to  try  them,  they  furnished  the  duke  with  an  excuse 
for  cutting  short  the  proceedings.  After  the  last  assigned 
period  had  expired,  on  the  1st  of  June,  1658,  the  council 
of  twelve  declared  them  guilty,  and  on  the  4th  of  that 
month  sentence  of  death  was  pronounced  against 
them. 

The  execution  of  twenty-five  noble  Netherlanders,  who 
were  beheaded  in  three  successive  days  in  the  market- 
place at  Brussels,  was  the  terrible  prelude  to  the  fate  of 
the  two  counts.  John  Casembrot  von  Beckerzeel,  secre- 
tary to  Count  Egmont,  was  one  of  the  unfortunates,  who 
was  thus  rewarded  for  his  fidelity  to  his  master,  which 
he  steadfastly  maintained  even  upon  the  rack,  and  for 
his  zeal  in  the  service  of  the  king,  which  he  had  rnani- 
fested  against  the  Iconoclasts.  The  others  had  either 
been  taken  prisoners,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  in  the 
insurrection  of  the  "  Gueux,"  or  apprehended  and  con- 
demned as  traitors  on  account  of  having  taken  a  part  in 
the  petition  of  the  nobles. 

The  duke  had  reason  to  hasten  the  execution  of  the 
sentence.  Count  Louis  of  Nassau  had  given  battle  to 
the  Count  of  Aremberg,  near  the  monastery  of  Heiligerlee, 
in  Groningen,  and  had  the  good  fortune  to  defeat  him. 
Immediately  after  his  victory  he  had  advanced  against 
Groningen,  and  laid  siege  to  it.  The  success  of  his  arms 
had  raised  the  courage  of  his  faction ;  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  his  brother,  was  close  at  hand  with  an  army  to 
su])port  him.  These  circumstances  made  the  duke's 
presence  necessary  in  those  distant  provinces;  but  he 
could   not  venture   to  leave  Brussels  before  the  fate  of 


282  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

two  such  inijiortnnt  prisoners  was  decided.  The  whole 
nation  loved  them,  wliich  was  not  a  little  increased  by 
their  unhappy  fate.  Even  the  strict  papists  disapproved 
of  the  execution  of  these  eminent  nobles.  The  slightest 
advantage  which  the  arms  of  the  rebels  might  gain  over 
the  duke,  or  even  the  re})ort  of  a  defeat,  would  cause  a 
revolution  in  Brussels,  which  would  immediately  set  the 
two  counts  at  liberty.  Moreover,  the  petitions  and  inter- 
cessions which  came  to  the  viceroy,  as  well  as  to  the 
King  of  Spain,  from  the  German  princes,  increased  daily  ; 
nay,  the  Emperor,  Maximilian  II.,  himself  caused  the 
countess  to  be  assured  "  that  she  had  nothing  to  fear  for 
the  life  of  her  spouse."  These  powerful  applications 
might  at  last  turn  the  king's  heart  in  favor  of  the  prison- 
ers. The  king  might,  perhaps,  in  reliance  on  his  viceroy's 
usual  dispatch,  put  on  the  appearance  of  yielding  to  the 
representations  of  so  many  sovereigns,  and  rescind  the 
sentence  of  death  under  the  conviction  that  his  mercy 
would  come  too  late.  These  considerations  moved  the 
duke  not  to  delay  the  execution  of  the  sentence  as  soon 
as  it  was  pronounced. 

On  the  day  after  the  sentence  was  passed  the  two 
counts  were  brought,  under  an  escort  of  three  thousand 
Spaniards,  from  Ghent  to  Brussels,  and  placed  in  confine- 
ment in  the  Brodhause,  in  the  great  market-])lace.  The 
next  morning  the  council  of  twelve  were  assembled ;  the 
duke,  contrary  to  his  custom,  attended  in  person,  and 
l)oth  the  sentences,  in  sealed  envelo])es,  were  opened  and 
])ublicly  read  by  Secretary  Pranz.  The  two  counts  wei-e 
declared  guilty  of  treason,  as  having  favored  and  pro- 
moted the  abominable  conspiracy  of  the  Prince  of  Or- 
ange, protected  the  confederated  nobles,  and  been  con- 
victed of  vai'ious  misdemeanors  against  their  king  and 
the  cliurch  in  their  governments  and  other  appointments. 
Both  were  sentenced  to  be  publicly  beheaded,  and  their 
heads  were  to  be  fixed  upon  pikes  and  not  taken  down 
without  the  duke's  express  command.  All  their  posses- 
sions, fiefs,  and  rights  escheated  to  the  royal  treasury. 
"^rhe  sentence  was  signed  only  by  the  duke  and  the  secre- 
tajy,  Pranz,  without  asking  or  caring  for  the  consent  of 
the  other  members  of  the  council. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       283 

During  the  night  between  the  4th  and  5th  of  June  the 
sentences  were  brought  to  the  prisoners,  after  they  had 
already  gone  to  rest.  The  duke  gave  them  to  the  Bishop 
of  Ypres,  Martin  Rithov,  whom  lie  }iad  expressly  sum- 
moned to  Brussels  to  prepare  the  prisoners  for  death. 
When  the  bishop  received  this  commission  he  threw  him- 
self at  the  feet  of  the  duke,  and  supplicated  him  with 
tears  in  his  eyes  for  mercy,  at  least  for  respite  for  the 
prisoners ;  but  he  was  answered  in  a  rough  and  angry 
voice  that  he  had  been  sent  for  from  Ypres,  not  to  oppose 
the  sentence,  but  by  his  spiritual  consolation  to  reconcile 
the  unhappy  noblemen  to  it. 

Egmont  was  the  first  to  whom  the  bishop  communicated 
the  sentence  of  death.  "That  is  indeed  a  severe  sen- 
tence," exclaimed  the  count,  turning  pale,  and  with  a 
faltering  voice.  "I  did  not  think  that  I  had  offended 
liis  majesty  so  deeply  as  to  deserve  such  treatment.  If, 
however,  it  must  be  so  I  submit  to  my  fate  with  resigna- 
tion. May  this  death  atone  for  my  offence,  and  save  my 
wife  and  children  from  suffering.  This  at  least  I  think  I 
may  claim  for  my  past  services.  As  for  death,  I  will 
meet  it  with  composui-e,  since  it  so  pleases  God  and  my 
king."  He  then  pressed  the  bishop  to  tell  him  seriously 
and  candidly  if  there  was  no  hope  of  pardon.  Being 
answered  in  the  negative,  he  confessed  and  received  the 
sacrament  from  the  priest,  repeating  after  him  the  mass 
with  great  devoutness.  He  asked  what  prayer  was  the 
best  and  most  effective  to  recommend  him  to  God  in  his 
last  hour.  On  being  told  that  no  prayer  could  be  more 
effectual  than  the  one  which  Christ  himself  had  taught, 
he  prepared  immediately  to  repeat  the  Lord's  prayer. 
The  thoughts  of  his  family  interrupted  him;  he  called 
for  pen  and  ink,  and  wrote  two  letters,  one  to  his  wife, 
the  other  to  the  king.     The  latter  was  as  follows : 

"  Sire, — This  morning  I  have  heard  the  sentence  which 
your  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  pass  upon  me.  Far  as 
I  have  ever  been  from  attempting  anything  against  the 
person  or  service  of  your  majesty,  or  against  the  true, 
old,  and  Catholic  religion,  I  yet  submit  myself  with 
])atience  to  the  fate  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  ordain 
I  should  suffer.     If,  during  the  past  disturbances,  I  have 


284       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

omitted,  advised,  or  done  anything  that  seems  at  variance 
with  my  duty,  it  was  most  assuredly  performed  with  the 
best  intentions,  or  was  forced  upon  me  by  the  pressure 
of  circumstances.  I  therefore  pray  your  majesty  to  for- 
give me,  and,  in  consideration  of  my  past  services,  show 
mercy  to  my  unliappy  wife,  my  poor  children,  and  ser- 
vants. In  a  firm  hope  of  this,  I  commend  myself  to  the 
infinite  mercy  of  God. 

"Your  majesty's  most  faithful  vassal  and  servant, 

"Lamoral  Count  Egmont. 

"  Brussels,  June  5,  1568,  near  my  last  moments." 

This  letter  he  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  with 
the  strongest  injunctions  for  its  safe  delivery  ;  and  for 
greater  security  he  sent  a  dui)licate  in  his  own  hand- 
writing to  StateCounsellor  Viglius,  the  most  upright  man 
in  tlie  senate,  by  whom,  there  is  no  doubt,  it  was  actually 
delivered  to  the  king.  The  family  of  the  count  were 
subsequently  reinstated  in  all  his  property,  fiefs,  and 
rights,  which,  by  virtue  of  the  sentence,  had  escheated  to 
the  royal  treasury. 

Meanwhile  a  scaffold  had  been  erected  in  the  market- 
place, before  the  town  hall,  on  which  two  poles  were  fixed 
with  iron  spikes,  and  the  whole  covered  with  black  cloth. 
Two-and-twenty  com})anies  of  the  Spanish  garrison  sur- 
rounded the  scaffold,  a  precaution  which  was  by  no  means 
superfluous.  Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  the  Spanish 
guard  appeared  in  the  apartment  of  the  count ;  they  were 
provided  with  cords  to  tie  his  hands  according  to  custom. 
He  begged  that  this  might  be  spared  him,  and  declared 
that  he  was  Avilling  and  readv  to  die.  He  himself  cut  off 
the  collar  from  his  doublet  to  facilitate  the  executioner's 
duty.  He  wore  a  robe  of  red  damask,  and  over  that  a 
"black  Spanish  cloak  trimmed  witli  gold  lace.  In  this 
dress  he  appeared  on  the  scaffold,  and  was  attended  by 
Don  Julian  Romero,  maitre-de-camp ;  Salinas,  a  Spanish 
captain ;  and  the  Bishop  of  Ypres.  The  grand  provost 
of  the  court,  with  a  red  wand  in  his  hand,  sat  on  horse- 
back at  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  5  the  executioner  was  con- 
cealed beneath. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        285 

E^mont  liad  at  first  sliown  a  desire  to  address  the 
people  from  the  scaffold.  He  desisted,  however,  on  the 
bisliop's  representing  to  him  that  either  he  would  not  be 
heard,  or  that  if  he  were,  he  might  —  such  at  present  was 
the  dangerous  disposition  of  the  people  —  excite  them  to 
acts  of  violence,  which  would  only  plunge  his  friends  into 
destruction.  For  a  few  moments  he  paced  the  scaffold 
with  noble  dignity,  and  lamented  that  it  had  not  been 
permitted  him  to  die  a  more  honorable  death  for  his  king 
and  his  country.  Up  to  the  last  he  seemed  unable  to 
persuade  himself  that  the  king  was  in  earnest,  and  that  his 
severity  would  be  carried  any  further  than  the  mere  ter- 
ror of  execution.  When  the  decisive  period  approached, 
and  he  was  to  receive  the  extreme  unction,  he  looked 
wistfully  round,  and  when  there  still  appeared  no  pros- 
pect of  a  reprieve,  he  turned  to  Julian  Romero,  and 
asked  him  once  more  if  there  was  no  hope  of  pardon  for 
him.  Julian  Romero  shrugged  his  shoulders,  looked  on 
the  ground,  and  was  silent. 

He  then  closely  clenched  his  teeth,  threw  off  bis  mantle 
and  robe,  knelt  upon  the  cushion,  and  prepared  himself 
for  the  last  prayer.  The  bishop  presented  him  the  crucifix 
to  kiss,  and  administered  to  him  extreme  unction,  upon 
which  the  count  made  him  a  sign  to  leave  him.  He  drew 
a  silk  cap  over  his  eyes,  and  awaited  the  stroke.  Over 
the  corpse  and  the  streaming  blood  a  black  cloth  was 
immediately  thrown. 

All  Brussels  thronged  around  the  scaffold,  and  the 
fatal  blow  seemed  to  fall  on  every  heart.  Loud  sobs 
alone  broke  the  appalling  silence.  The  duke  himself, 
who  watched  the  execution  from  a  window  of  the  town- 
house,  wiped  his  eyes  ns  his  victim  died. 

Shortly  afterwards  Count  Horn  advanced  on  the  scaf- 
fold. Of  a  more  violent  temperament  than  his  friend, 
and  stimulated  by  stronger  reasons  for  hatred  against  the 
king,  he  had  received  the  sentence  Avith  less  composure, 
although  in  his  case,  perhaps,  it  was  less  unjust.  He 
burst  forth  in  bitter  reproaches  against  the  king,  and  the 
bishop  with  difficulty  prevailed  upon  him  to  make  a  better 
use  of  his  last  moments  than  to  abuse  them  in  impreca- 
tions on  his  enemies.     At  last,  however,  he  became  more 


286  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETIIEHLANDS. 

collected,  and  made  his  confession  to  the  bishop,  which  at 
fii-st  he  was  disposed  to  refuse. 

lie  mounted  the  scaffold  Avith  the  same  attendants  as 
liis  friend.  In  passing  he  saluted  many  of  his  acquain- 
tances ;  his  hands  were,  like  Egiuont's,  free,  and  he  was 
dressed  in  a  black  doublet  and  cloak,  with  a  Milan  cap  of 
the  same  color  upon  his  head.  When  he  had  ascended, 
he  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  corpse,  which  lay  under  the 
cloth,  and  asked  one  of  the  bystanders  if  it  was  the  body 
of  his  friend.  On  being  answered  in  the  afiirrnative,  lie 
said  some  words  in  Spanish,  threw  his  cloak  from  him, 
and  knelt  upon  the  cushion.  All  shrieked  aloud  as  he 
received  the  fatal  blow. 

The  heads  of  both  were  fixed  upon  the  poles  which 
were  set  up  on  the  scaffold,  where  they  remained  until 
past  three  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  were  taken  down, 
and,  wdth  the  two  bodies,  placed  in  leaden  coflins  and 
deposited  in  a  vault. 

In  spite  of  the  number  of  spies  and  executioners  who 
surrounded  the  scaffold,  the  citizens  of  Brussels  would 
not  be  prevented  from  dipping  their  handkerchiefs  in  the 
streaming  blood,  and  carrying  home  with  them  these 
precious  memorials. 


SIEGE  OF  ANTWERP  BY  THE  PRINCE  OF  PARMA, 
IN  THE  YEARS  1581  AND  1585. 

It  is  an  interesting  spectacle  to  observe  the  struggle  of 
man's  inventive  genius  in  conflict  with  powerful  opposing 
elements,  and  to  see  the  difticulties  which  are  insurmount- 
able to  ordinary  capacities  overcome  by  prudence,  resolu- 
tion, and  a  determined  will.  Less  attractive,  but  only 
the  more  instructive,  perhaps,  is  the  contrary  spectacle, 
where  the  absence  of  those  qualities  renders  all  efforts  of 
genius  vain,  throws  away  all  the  favors  of  fortune,  and 
where  inability  to  improve  such  advantages  renders  hope- 
less a  success  which  otherwise  seemed  sure  and  inevitable. 
Examples  of  both  kinds  are  afforded  by  the  celebrated 
siege  of  Antwerj)  by  the  Spaniards  towards  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  by  which  tliat  flourishing  city  was 
forever  deprived  of  its  commercial  prosperity,  but  which, 
on  the  other  hand,  conferred  immortal  fame  on  the  general 
Avho  undertook  and  accomplished  it. 

Twelve  years  had  the  war  continued  which  the  north- 
ern provinces  of  Belgium  had  commenced  at  first  in 
vindication  simply  of  their  religious  freedom,  and  the 
privileges  of  their  states,  from  the  encroachments  of  the 
Spanish  viceroy,  but  maintained  latterly  in  the  hope  of 
establishing  their  independence  of  the  Spanish  crown. 
Never  completely  victors,  but  never  entirely  vanquished, 
they  wearied  out  the  Spanish  valor  by  tedious  operations 
on  an  unfavorable  soil,  and  exhausted  the  wealth  of  the 
sovereign  of  both  the  Indies  while  they  themselves  were 
called  beggars,  and  in  a  degree  actually  were  so.  The 
league  of  Ghent,  which  had  united  the  whole  Nether- 
lands, Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  in  a  common  and 
(could  such  a  confederation  have  lasted)  invincible  body, 
was  indeed  dissolved  ;  but  in  place  of  this  uncertain  and 
unnatural  combination  the  northern  provinces  had,  in  the 
year  1579,  formed  among  themselves  the  closer  union  of 
Utrecht,  which  promised  to  be  more  lasting,  inasmuch  as 
it  was  linked  and  held  together  by  common  political  and 
religious  interests.     What  the  new  republic  had  lost  in 

287 


288       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

extent  through  tliis  separation  from  tlie  Roman  Catholic 
jirovinces  it  was  fvilly  coiii]H'nsate(l  for  by  tlie  closeness 
of  alliance,  the  unity  of  enterprise,  and  energy  of  exe- 
cution ;  and  perhaps  it  was  fortunate  in  thus  timely  losing 
what  no  exertion  probably  would  ever  liave  enabled  it  to 
retain. 

The  greater  part  of  the  Walloon  provinces  had,  in  the 
year  1584,  partly  by  voluntary  submission  and  partly  by 
force  of  arms,  been  again  reduced  under  the  Spanish 
yoke.  The  northern  districts  alone  had  been  able  at  all 
successfully  to  opjjose  it.  A  considerable  portion  of 
Bi-abant  and  Flanders  still  obstinately  held  out  against 
the  arms  of  the  Duke  Alexander  of  Parma,  who  at  that 
time  administered  the  civil  government  of  the  provinces, 
and  the  supreme  command  of  the  army,  with  equal  energy 
and  prudence,  and  by  a  series  of  splendid  victories  had 
revived  the  military  reputation  of  Spain.  The  peculiar 
formation  of  the  country,  which  by  its  numerous  rivers 
and  canals  facilitated  the  connection  of  the  towns  with 
one  another  and  with  the  sea,  bafiied  all  attempts  effect- 
ually to  subdue  it,  and  the  possession  of  one  place  could 
only  be  maintained  by  the  occupation  of  another.  So 
long  as  this  communication  was  kept  up  Holland  and 
Zealand  could  with  little  difficulty  assist  their  allies,  and 
supply  them  abundantly  by  water  as  well  as  by  land 
with  all  necessaries,  so  that  valor  was  of  no  use,  and  the 
strength  of  the  king's  troops  was  fruitlessly  wasted  on 
tedious  sieges. 

Of  all  the  towns  in  Brabant  Antwerp  was  the  most 
important,  as  well  from  its  wealth,  its  population,  and  its 
military  force,  as  by  its  position  on  the  mouth  of  the 
Scheldt.  This  great  and  populous  town,  which  at  this 
date  contained  more  than  eighty  thousand  inhabitants, 
was  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  national 
league,  and  had  in  the  course  of  the  war  distinguished 
itself  above  all  the  towns  of  Belgium  by  an  untamable 
spirit  of  liberty.  As  it  fostered  within  its  bosom  all  the 
three  Christian  churches,  and  owed  much  of  its  prosperity 
to  this  unrestricted  religious  liberty,  it  had  the  more  cause 
to  dread  the  Spanish  i-ule,  which  threatened  to  abolish 
this  toleration,  and  by  the  terror  of  the  Inquisition  to 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        289 

drive  all  the  Protestant  nicrcliants  from  its  markets. 
Moreover  it  bad  had  but  too  terrible  experience  of  the 
brutality  of  the  Spanish  garrisons,  and  it  was  quite 
evident  that  if  it  once  more  suffered  this  insupportable 
yoke  to  be  imposed  upon  it  it  would  never  again  during 
the  whole  course  of  the  war  be  able  to  throw  it  off. 

But  powerful  as  Avere  the  motives  which  stimulated 
Antwerp  to  resistance,  equally  strong  were  the  reasons 
which  determined  the  Spanish  general  to  make  himself 
master  of  the  j^lace  at  any  cost.  On  the  possession  of 
this  town  depended  in  a  great  measure  that  of  the  whole 
province  of  Brabant,  which  by  this  channel  chiefly  derived 
its  supplies  of  corn  from  Zealand,  while  the  capture  of 
this  place  would  secure  to  the  victor  the  command  of  the 
Scheldt.  It  would  also  de})rive  the  league  of  Brabant, 
which  held  its  meetings  in  the  town,  of  its  principal 
support;  the  whole  faction  of  its  dangerous  influence,  of 
its  example,  its  counsels,  and  its  money,  Avhile  the  treas- 
ures of  its  inhabitants  would  open  plentiful  supplies  for 
the  military  exigencies  of  the  king.  Its  fall  would  sooner 
or  later  necessarily  draw  after  it  that  of  all  Brabant,  and 
the  j^reponcJerance  of  power  in  that  quarter  would  decide 
the  whole  dispute  in  favor  of  the  king.  Determined  by 
these  grave  considerations,  the  Duke  of  Parma  drew  his 
forces  together  in  July,  1584,  and  advanced  from  his 
position  at  Dornick  to  the  neighborhood  of  Antwerp, 
with  the  intention  of  investing  it. 

But  both  the  natural  position  and  fortifications  of  the 
town  appeared  to  defy  attacks.  Surrounded  on  the  side 
of  Brabant  with  insurmountable  works  and  moats,  and 
towards  Flanders  covered  by  the  broad  and  rapid  stream 
of  the  Scheldt,  it  could  not  be  carried  by  storm  ;  and  to 
blockade  a  town  of  such  extent  seemed  to  requii'e  a  land 
force  three  times  larger  than  that  which  the  duke  had, 
and  moreover  a  fleet,  of  which  he  was  utterly  destitute. 
Not  only  did  the  river  yield  the  town  all  necessary 
supplies  from  Ghent,  it  also  opened  an  easy  communica- 
tion with  the  bordering  province  of  Zealand.  For,  as  the 
tide  of  the  North  Sea  extends  far  up  the  Scheldt,  and 
ebbs  and  flows  regularly,  Antwerp  enjoys  the  peculiar 
advantage  that  the  same  tide  flows  past  it  at  different 


290  REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

times  in  two  opposite  directions.  Besides,  the  adjacent 
towns  of  Brussels,  Malines^  Ghent,  Dendernionde,  and 
others,  Avere  all  at  this  tune  in  the  hands  of  the  league, 
and  could  aid  the  place  from  the  land  side  also.  To 
blockade,  therefore,  the  town  by  land,  and  to  cut  off  its 
communication  with  Flanders  and  Brabant,  required  two 
different  armies,  one  on  each  bank  of  the  river.  A  suffi- 
cient fleet  was  likewise  needed  to  guard  the  passage  of 
the  Scheldt,  and  to  prevent  all  attempts  at  relief,  which 
would  most  certainly  be  made  from  Zealand.  But  by  the 
war  which  he  had  still  to  carry  on  in  other  quarters,  and 
by  the  numerous  garrisons  which  he  was  obliged  to  leave 
in  the  towns  and  fortified  places,  the  army  of  the  duke 
was  reduced  to  ten  thousand  infantry  and  seventeen  hun- 
dred horse,  a  force  very  inadequate  for  an  undertaking  of 
such  magnitude.  Moreover,  these  troops  were  deficient 
in  the  most  necessary  supplies,  and  the  long  arrears  of 
pay  had  excited  them  to  subdued  murmurs,  which  hourly 
threatened  to  break  out  into  open  mutiny.  If,  notwith- 
standing these  difiiculties,  he  should  still  attempt  the 
seige,  there  would  be  much  occasion  to  fear  from  the 
strongholds  of  the  enemy,  which  were  left  inj,he  rear,  and 
from  which  it  would  be  easy,  by  vigorous  sallies,  to  annoy 
an  army  distributed  over  so  many  places,  and  to  expose 
it  to  want  by  cutting  off  its  supplies. 

All  these  considerations  were  brought  forward  by  the 
council  of  war,  before  which  the  Duke  of  Parma  now  laid 
his  scheme.  However  great  the  confidence  which  they 
placed  in  themselves,  and  in  the  proved  abilities  of  such 
a  leader,  nevertheless  the  most  experienced  generals  did 
not  disguise  their  desp.air  of  a  fortunate  result.  Two 
only  were  exceptions,  Capizucchi  and  Mondragone,  whose 
ardent  courage  placed  them  above  all  apprehensions ;  the 
rest  concurred  in  dissuading  the  duke  from  attempting 
so  hazardous  an  enterprise,  by  which  they  ran  the  risk  of 
forfeiting  the  fruit  of  all  their  former  victories  and 
tarnishing  the  glory  they  had  already  earned. 

But  objections,  which  he  had  already  made  to  himself 
and  refuted,  could  not  shake  the  Duke  of  Parma  in  his 
purpose.  Not  in  ignorance  of  its  inseparable  dangers, 
not  from  thoughtless  overvaluing  his  forces  had  he  taken 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        291 


this  bold  resolve.  But  that  instinctive  genius  which 
leads  great  men  by  paths  which  inferior  minds  eitlier 
never  enter  upon  or  never  finish,  raised  him  above  the 
influence  of  the  doubts  which  a  cold  and  narrow  prudence 
would  oppose  to  his  views ;  and,  without  being  able  to 
convince  his  generals,  he  felt  the  correctness  of  his  calcu- 
lations in  a  conviction  indistinct,  indeed,  but  not  on  that 
account  less  indubitable.  A  succession  of  fortunate 
results  had  raised  his  confidence,  and  the  sight  of  his 
army,  unequalled  in  Europe  for  discipline,  experience, 
and  valor,  and  commanded  by  a  chosen  body  of  the  most 
distinguished  officers,  did  not  permit  him  to  entertain 
fear  for  a  moment.  To  those  who  objected  to  the  small 
number  of  his  troops,  he  answered,  that  however  long  the 
pike,  it  is  only  the  point  that  kills ;  and  that  in  military 
enterprise,  the  moving  power  was  of  more  importance 
than  the  mass  to  be  moved.  He  was  aware,  indeed,  of 
the  discontent  of  his  troops,  but  he  knew  also  their  obedi- 
ence ;  and  he  thought,  moreover,  that  the  best  means  to 
stifle  their  murmurs  was  by  keeping  them  employed  in 
some  important  undertaking,  by  stimulating  their  desire 
of  glory  by  the  splendor  of  the  enterprise,  and  their 
rapacity  by  hopes  of  the  rich  booty  which  the  capture 
of  so  wealthy  a  town  would  hold  out. 

In  the  plan  which  he  now  formed  for  the  conduct  of 
the  siege  he  endeavored  to  meet  all  these  difficulties. 
Famine  was  the  only  instrument  by  which  he  could  hope 
to  subdue  the  town ;  but  effectually  to  use  this  formid- 
able weapon,  it  would  be  expedient  to  cut  off  all  its  land 
and  water  communications.  With  this  view,  the  first 
object  was  to  stop,  or  at  least  to  impede,  the  arrival 
of  sui^plies  from  Zealand.  It  was,  therefore,  requisite 
not  only  to  carry  all  the  outworks,  which  the  people  of 
Antwerp  had  built  on  both  shores  of  the  Scheldt  for  the 
protection  of  their  shipping ;  but  also,  wherever  feasible, 
to  throw  up  new  batteries  which  should  command  the 
whole  course  of  the  river ;  and  to  prevent  the  place  from 
drawing  supplies  from  the  land  side,  Avhile  efforts  were 
being  made  to  intercept  their  transmission  by  sea,  all  the 
adjacent  towns  of  Brabant  and  Flanders  were  compre- 
hended in  the  plan  of  the  siege,  and  the  fall  of  Antwerp  was 


292  ItEVOLT    OF    THE    NETHERLANDS. 

based  on  the  destruction  of  all  those  places.  A  bold  and, 
considering  the  duke's  scanty  force,  an  almost  extrava- 
gant project,  which  was,  however,  justified  by  the  genius 
of  its  author,  and  crowned  by  fortune  with  a  brilliant 
result. 

As,  however,  time  Avas  required  to  accomplish  a  plan  of 
this  magnitude,  the  Prince  of  Parma  was  content,  for  1  he 
present,  with  the  erection  of  numerous  forts  on  the  canals 
and  rivers  which  connected  Antwerp  with  Dendermonde, 
Ghent,  Malines,  Brussels,  and  other  places.  Spanish  gar- 
risons were  quartered  in  the  vicinity,  and  almost  at  tlie 
very  gates  of  those  tOM^is,  which  laid  waste  the  o])en 
country,  and  by  their  incursions  kept  the  surrounding 
territory  in  alarm.  Thus,  round  Glient  alone  were  en- 
camped about  three  thousand  men,  and  proportionate 
numbers  round  the  other  towns.  In  this  way,  and  by 
means  of  the  secret  understanding  which  he  maintained 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  inhabitants  of  tliose  towns,  the 
duke  hoped,  without  weakening  his  own  forces,  gradually 
to  exhaust  their  strength,  and  by  the  harassing  operations 
of  a  petty  but  incessant  warfare,  even  without  any  forni.'u 
siege,  to  reduce  them  at  last  to  capitulate. 

In  the  meantime  the  main  force  was  directed  against 
Antwerp,  which  he  now  closely  invested.  He  fixed  his 
headquarters  at  Bevern  in  Flanders,  a  few  miles  from 
Antwerp,  Avhere  he  found  a  fortified  camp.  The  protec- 
tion of  the  Flemish  bank  of  the  Scheldt  m  as  entrusted  to 
the  Margrave  of  Rysburg,  general  of  cavalry;  the  Brabant 
bank  to  the  Coimt  Peter  JErnest  Von  Mansfeld,  who  was 
joined  by  another  Spanish  leader,  Mondragone.  Both  the 
latter  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Scheldt  upon  pontoons, 
notwithstanding  the  Flemish  admiral's  sliip  was  sent  to 
oppose  them,  and,  passing  Antwerj),  took  up  their  position 
at  Stabroek  in  Bergen.  "Detached  corps  dispersed  them- 
selves along  the  whole  Brabant  side,  partly  to  secure  the 
dykes  and  the  i-oads. 

Some  miles  below  Antwerp  the  Scheldt  Avas  guarded 
by  two  strong  forts,  of  Avhich  one  was  situated  at  Lief- 
kenshoek  on  the  island  Doel,  in  Flanders,  the  othei-  at 
Lillo,  exactly  opposite  the  coast  of  Brabant.  The  last 
had  been  erected  by  Mondragone  himself,  by  order  of 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        293 

the  Duke  of  Alva,  when  the  latter  was  still  master 
of  Antwerp,  and  for  this  very  reason  the  Duke  of 
Parma  now  entrusted  to  him  the  attack  upon  it. 
On  the  possession  of  these  two  forts  the  success  of 
the  siege  seemed  wholly  to  depend,  since  all  the  vessels 
sailing  from  Zealand  to  Antwerp  must  j^ass  under  their 
guns.  Both  forts  had  a  short  time  before  been  strength- 
ened by  the  besieged,  and  the  former  Avas  scarcely  finished 
when  the  Margrave  of  Rysbui-g  attacked  it.  The  celerity 
with  which  he  went  to  work  surprised  the  enemy  before 
they  were  sufficiently  prepared  for  defence,  and  a  brisk 
assault  quickly  placed  Liefkenshoek  in  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards.  The  confederates  sustained  this  loss  on  the 
same  fatal  day  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  fell  at  Delft  by 
the  hands  of  an  assassin.  The  other  batteries,  erected 
on  the  island  of  Doel,  were  partly  abandoned  by  their 
defenders,  partly  taken  by  surprise,  so  that  in  a  short 
time  the  whole  Flemish  side  was  cleared  of  the  enemy. 
But  the  fort  at  Lillo,  on  the  Brabant  shore,  offered  a 
more  vigorous  resistance,  since  the  people  of  Antwerp 
had  had  time  to  strengthen  its  fortifications  and  to  jiro- 
vide  it  with  a  strong  garrison.  Furious  sallies  of  the 
besieged,  led  by  Odets  von  Teligny,  supported  by  the 
cannon  of  the  fort,  destroyed  all  the  works  of  the  Span- 
iards, and  an  inundation,  which  was  effected  by  opening 
the  sluices,  finally  drove  them  away  from  the  place  after 
a  three  weeks'  siege,  and  with  the  loss  of  nearly  two 
thousand  killed.  They  now  retired  into  their  fortified 
camp  at  Stabroek,  and  contented  themselves  with  taking 
possession  of  the  dams  which  run  across  the  lowlands  of 
Bergen,  and  oppose  a  breastwork  to  the  encroachments 
of  the  East  Scheldt. 

The  failure  of  his  attempt  upon  the  fort  of  Lillo  com- 
pelled the  Prince  of  Parma  to  change  his  measures.  As 
he  could  not  succeed  in  stopping  the  passage  of  the 
Scheldt  by  his  original  plan,  on  which  the  success  of  the 
siege  entirely  depended,  he  determined  to  effect  his  pur- 
pose by  throwing  a  bridge  across  the  whole  breadth  of 
the  river.  The  thought  was  bold,  and  there  were  many 
who  held  it  to  be  rash.  Both  the  breadth  of  the  stream, 
which  at  this  part  exceeds  twelve  hundred  paces,  as  well 


294        KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

as  its  violence,  Tvhich  is  still  further  augmented  by  the 
tides  of  tlie  neighboring  sea,  appeared  to  render  every 
attempt  of  this  kind  impracticable.  Moreover,  he  liad  to 
contend  with  a  deficiency  of  timber,  vessels,  and  work- 
men, as  well  as  with  the  dangerous  position  between  the 
fleets  of  Antwerp  and  of  Zealand,  to  wliich  it  would  neces- 
sarily be  an  easy  task,  in  combination  with  a  boisterous 
element,  to  interrupt  so  tedious  a  work.  But  the 
Prince  of  Parma  knew  his  power,  and  his  settled  resolu- 
tion would  yield  to  nothing  short  of  absolute  impossi- 
bility. After  he  had  caused  the  breadth  as  well  as  the 
depth  of  the  river  to  be  measured,  and  had  consulted 
with  two  of  his  most  skilful  engineers,  Barocci  and  Plato, 
it  was  settled  that  the  bridge  should  be  constructed  be- 
tween Calloo  in  Flanders  and  Ordam  in  Brabant.  This 
spot  was  selected  because  the  river  is  here  narrowest, 
and  bends  a  little  to  the  right,  and  so  detains  vessels  a 
while  by  compelling  them  to  tack.  To  cover  the  bridge 
strong  bastions  were  erected  at  both  ends,  of  which  tlie 
one  on  the  Flanders  side  was  named  Fort  St.  Maria,  the 
other,  on  the  Brabant  side,  Fort  St.  Philip,  in  honor  of 
the  king. 

While  active  preparations  were  making  in  the  Spanish 
camp  for  tlfe  execution  of  this  scheme,  and  the  whole  at- 
tention of  the  enemy  was  directed  to  it,  the  duke  made 
an  unexpected  attack  upon  Dendermonde,  a  strong  town 
between  Ghent  and  Antwerp,  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Dender  and  the  Scheldt.  As  long  as  tliis  important 
place  was  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  the  towns  of  Ghent 
and  Antwerp  could  mutually  support  each  other,  and  by 
the  facility  of  their  communication  frustrate  all  the 
efforts  of  the  besiegers.  Its  capture  would  leave  the 
prince  free  to  act  against  both  towns,  and  might  decide 
the  fate  of  his  undertaking.  The  rapidity  of  Ids  attack 
left  the  besieged  no  time  to  open  their  sluices  and  lay  the 
country  under  water.  A  hot  cannonade  was  opened 
upon  the  chief  bastion  of  the  town  before  the  Brussels 
gate,  but  Avas  answered  by  the  fire  of  the  besieged,  which 
made  great  havoc  amongst  the  Spaniards.  It  increased, 
however,  rather  than  discouraged,  their  ardor,  and  the 
insults  of  the  garrison,  who  mutilated  the  statue  of  a 


"REVOLT    OF   THE   NETHEELAXDS.  295 

saint  before  their  eyes,  and  after  treating  it  with  the  most 
contumelious  indignity,  hurled  it  down  from  the  rampart, 
raised  their  fury  to  the  highest  pitch.     Clamorously  they 
demanded  to  be  led  against  the  bastion  before  their  fire 
had  made  a  sufficient  breach  in  it,  and  the  prince,  to  avail 
himself  of  the  first  ardor  of  their  impetuosity,  gave  the 
signal  for  the  assault.     After  a  sanguinary  contest  of  two 
hours  the  rampart  was  mounted,  and  those  Avho  Avere  not 
sacrificed  to  the  first  fury  of  the  Spaniards  threw  them- 
selves into  the  town.     The  latter  was  indeed  now  more 
exposed,  a  fire  being  directed  upon  it  from  the  works 
w^hich  had  been   carried ;  but  its  strong  walls  and  the 
broad  moat  which  surrounded  it  gave  reason  to  expect  a 
protracted    resistance.     The   inventive  resources  of   the 
Prince   of    Parma    soon    overcame    this    obstacle   also. 
While  the  bombardment  was  carried  on  night  and  day, 
the  troops  were  incessantly  employed  in  diverting  the 
course   of   the  Dender,  wiiich  sup])lied   the  fosse  with 
water,  and  the  besieged  were  seized  with  despair  as  they 
saw  the  water  of  the  trenches,  the  last  defence  of  the 
town,  gradually  disappear.     They  hastened  to  capitulate, 
and  in  August,  1584,  received  a  Spanish  garrison.     Thus» 
in  the  space  of  eleven  days,  the  Prince  of  Parma  accom- 
plished an  undertaking  which,   in  the   opinion   of  com- 
petent judges,  would  require  as  many  weeks. 

The  town  of  Ghent,  now  cut  off  from  Antwerp  and 
the  sea,  and  hard  pressed  by  the  troops  of  the  king, 
which  were  encamped  in  its  vicinity,  and  without  hope 
of  immediate  succor,  began  to  despair,  as  famine,  with 
all  its  dreadful  train,  advanced  upon  them  with  rapid 
steps.  The  inhabitants  therefore  despatched  deputies  to 
the  Spanish  camp  at  Bevern,  to  tender  its  submission  to 
the  king  upon  the  same  terms  as  the  prince  had  a  short 
time  previously  offered.  The  deputies  were  informed 
that  the  time  for  treaties  was  past,  and  that  an  uncondi- 
tional submission  alone  could  appease  the  just  anger  of 
the  monarch  whom  they  had  offended  by  their  rebellion. 
Nay,  they  were  even  given  to  understand  that  it  would 
be  only  through  his  great  mercy  if  the  same  humiliation 
were  not  exacted  from  them  as  their  rebellious  ancestors 
were  forced   to   undergo  under  Charles  V.,  namely,  to 


296       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

implore  pardon  half-naked,  and  with  a  cord  round  their 
necks.  The  deputies  returned  to  Ghent  in  desi)air,  but 
tliree  days  afterwards  a  new  deputation  was  sent  to  tlie 
Spanish  camp,  which  at  last,  by  the  intercession  of  one  of 
the  prince's  friends,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  Ghent,  obtained 
peace  upon  moderate  terms.  The  town  was  to  pay  a 
line  of  two  hundred  thousand  florins,  recall  the  banished 
papists,  and.  expel  the  Protestant  inhabitants,  who,  how- 
ever, were  to  be  allowed  two  years  for  the  settlement  of 
their  affairs.  AH  the  inhabitants  except  six,  who  were 
reserved  for  capital  punishment  (but  afterwards  par- 
doned), were  included  in  a  general  amnesty,  and  the 
garrison,  which  amounted  to  two  thousand  men,  was 
allowed  to  evacuate  the  place  with  the  honors  of  war. 
This  treaty  was  concluded  in  September  of  the  same 
year,  at  the  headquarters  at  Bevern,  and  immediately 
three  thousand  Spaniards  marched  into  the  town  as  a 
garrison. 

It  was  more  by  the  terror  of  his  name  and  the  dread 
of  famine  than  by  the  force  of  arms  that  the  Prince  of 
Parma  had  succeeded  in  reducing  this  city  to  submission, 
the  largest  and  strongest  in  the  Netherlands,  which  was 
little  inferior  to  Paris  within  the  barriers  of  its  inner 
town,  consisted  of  thirty-seven  thousand  houses,  and  was 
built  on  twenty  islands,  connected  by  ninety-eight  stone 
bridges.  The  important  privileges  which  in  the  course 
of  several  centuries  this  city  had  contrived  to  extort 
from  its  rulers  fostered  in  its  inhabitants  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence, which  not  unfrequently  degenerated  into  riot 
and  license,  and  naturally  brought  it  in  collision  with 
the  Austrian-Spanish  government.  And  it  was  exactly 
this  bold  spirit  of  liberty  which  procured  for  the  Reforma- 
tion the  rapid  and  extensive  success  it  met  with  in  this 
town,  and  the  combined  incentives  of  civil  and  religious 
freedom  produced  all  those  scenes  of  violence  by  which, 
during  the  rebellion,  it  had  unfortunately  distinguished 
itself.  Besides  the  fine  levied,  the  prince  found  within 
the  walls  a  large  store  of  artillery,  carriages,  ships,  and 
building  materials  of  all  kinds,  with  numeTous  workmen 
and  sailors,  who  materially  aided  him  in  his  plans  against 
Antwerp. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       297 

Before  Ghent  surrendered  to  the  king  Vilvorden  and 
Herentals  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  the  capture  of  the  block-houses  near  the  village  of 
Willebrock  had  cut  off  Antwerp  from  Brussels  and  Ma- 
lines.  The  loss  of  these  places  within  so  short  a  period 
deprived  Antwerp  of  all  hope  of  succor  from  Brabant 
and  Flanders,  and  limited  all  their  expectations  to  the 
assistance  which  might  be  looked  for  from  Zealand.  But 
to  deprive  them  also  of  this  the  Prince  of  Parma  was 
now  making  the  most  energetic  preparations. 

The  citizens  of  Antwerp  had  beheld  the  first  operations 
of  the  enemy  against  their  town  with  the  proud  security 
with  which  the  sight  of  their  invincible  river  inspired 
them.  This  confidence  was  also  in  a  degree  justified  by 
the  opinion  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who,  upon  the  first 
intelligence  of  the  design,  had  said  that  the  Spanish  army 
would  inevitably  perish  before  the  walls  of  Antwerp. 
That  nothing,  however,  might  be  neglected,  he  sent,  a 
short  time  before  his  assassination,  for  the  burgomaster 
of  Antwerp,  Philip  Marnix  of  St.  Aldegonde,  his  inti- 
mate friend,  to  Delft,  where  he  consulted  with  him  as  to 
the  means  of  maintaining  defensive  operations.  It  was 
ao-reed  between  them  that  it  Avould  be  advisable  to  de- 
molish  forth Avith  the  great  dam  between  Sanvliet  and 
Lillo  called  the  Blaaugarendyk,  so  as  to  allow  the  waters 
of  the  East  Scheldt  to  inundate,  if  necessary,  the  low- 
lands of  Bergen,  and  thus,  in  the  event  of  the  Scheldt 
being  closed,  to  open  a  passage  for  the  Zealand  vessels  to 
the  town  across  the  inundated  country.  Aldegonde  had, 
after  his  return,  actually  persuaded  the  magistrate  and 
the  majority  of  the  citizens  to  agree  to  this  proposal, 
when  it  was  resisted  by  the  guild  of  butchers,  who 
claimed  that  they  would  be  ruined  by  such  a  measure ; 
for  the  plain  which  it  was  wished  to  lay  under  water  was 
a  vast  tract  of  pasture  land,  upon  which  about  twelve 
thousand  oxen  were  annually  put  to  graze.  The  objec- 
tion of  the  butchers  was  successful,  and  they  managed 
to  prevent  the  execution  of  this  salutary  scheme  until 
the  enemy  had  got  possession  of  the  dams  as  well  as  the 
pasture  land. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  burgomaster  St.  Aldegonde, 


298       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

who,  himself  a  member  of  the  states  of  Brabant,  was 
possessed  of  great  authority  iii  tliat  council,  the  fortifica- 
tions on  both  sides  the  Scheldt  had,  a  short  time  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  been  placed  in  repair,  and 
many  new  redoubts  erected  round  the  town.  The  dams 
had  been  cut  through  at  Saftingen,  and  the  water  of  the 
West  Scheldt  let  out  over  nearly  the  whole  country  of 
Waes.  In  the  adjacent  Marquisate  of  Bergen  troops  had 
been  enlisted  by  the  Count  of  Hohenlohe,  and  a  Scotch 
regiment,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Morgan,  was 
already  in  the  pay  of  the  republic,  while  fresh  reinforce- . 
ments  were  daily  expected  from  England  and  France. 
Above  all,  the  states  of  Holland  and  Zealand  were  called 
upon  to  hasten  their  supplies.  But  after  the  enemy  had 
taken  strong  positions  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  and  the 
fire  of  their  batteries  made  the  navigation  dangerous, 
when  place  after  place  in  Brabant  fell  into  their  hands, 
and  their  cavalry  had  cut  off  all  communication  on  the 
land  side,  the  inhabitants  of  Antwerp  began  at  last  to 
entertain  serious  ajiprehensions  for  the  future.  The  town 
then  contained  eighty-five  thousand  souls,  and  according 
to  calculation  three  hundred  thousand  quarters  of  corn 
were  annually  required  for  their  support.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  siege  neither  the  supply  nor  the  money  was 
wanting  for  the  laying  in  of  such  a  store ;  for  in  spite  of 
the  enemy's  fire  the  Zealand  victualing  ships,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  rising  tide,  contrived  to  make  their  way 
to  the  town.  All  that  was  requisite  was  to  prevent  any 
of  the  richer  citizens  from  buying  up  these  supplies,  and, 
in  case  of  scarcity,  raising  the  price.  To  secure  his 
object,  one  Gianibelli  from  Mantua,  who  had  rendered 
important  services  in  the  course  of  the  siege,  proposed  a 
property  tax  of  one  penny  in  every  hundred,  and  the 
appointment  of  a  board  of  respectable  persons  to  pur- 
chase corn  with  this  money,  and  distribute  it  weekly. 
And  until  the  returns  of  this  tax  should  be  available  the 
richer  cLi'Sses  should  advance  the  required  sum,  holding 
the  com  purchased,  as  a  deposit,  in  their  own  magazines; 
and  were  also  to  share  in  the  profit.  But  this  plan  was 
unwelcome  to  the  wealthier  citizens,  who  had  resolved  to 
profit  by  the  ggiaeral  distress.'    They  recommended  that 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       299 

every  individual  should  be  required  to  provide  himself 
with  a  sufficient  supi^ly  for  two  years ;  a  proposition  which, 
however  it  might  suit  their  own  circumstances,  was  very 
unreasonable  in  regard  to  the  poorer  inhabitants,  who, 
even  before  the  siege,  could  scarcely  find  means  to  sup- 
ply themselves  for  so  many  months.  They  obtained 
indeed  their  object,  which  was  to  reduce  the  poor  to  the 
necessity  of  either  quitting  the  place  or  becoming  entirely 
their  dependents.  But  when  they  afterwards  reflected 
that  in  the  time  of  need  the  rights  of  property  would  not 
be  respected,  they  found  it  advisable  not  to  be  over-hasty 
in  making  their  own  purchases. 

The  magistrate,  in  order  to  avert  an  evil  that  would 
have  pressed  upon  individuals  only,  had  recourse  to  an 
expedient  which  endangered  the  safety  of  all.  Some 
enterprising  persons  in  Zealand  had  freighted  a  large 
fleet  wlLli  provisions,  which  succeeded  in  passing  the  guns 
of  the  enemy,  and  discharged  its  cargo  at  Antwerp.  The 
liope  of  a  large  profit  had  tempted  the  merchants  to  enter 
upon  this  hazardous  speculation ;  in  this,  however,  they 
were  disappointed,  as  the  magistrate  of  Antwerp  had,  just 
befoi'e  their  arrival,  issued  an  edict  regulating  the  price  of 
all  the  necessaries  of  life.  At  the  same  time  to  prevent 
individuals  from  buying  up  the  whole  cargo  and  storing 
it  in  their  magazines  with  a  view  of  disposing  of  it  after- 
wards at  a  dearer  rate,  he  ordered  that  the  whole  should 
be  publicly  sold  in  any  quantities  from  the  vessels.  The 
speculators,  cheated  of  tlieir  hoj^es  of  profit  by  these  pre- 
cautions, set  sail  again,  and  left  Antwerp  with  the  greater 
part  of  their  cargo,  which  would  have  sufficed  for  the 
support  of  the  town  for  several  months. 

Tills  neglect  of  the  most  essential  and  natural  means 
of  preservation  can  only  be  explained  by  the  supposition 
that  the  inhabitants  considered  it  absolutely  impossible 
ever  to  close  the  Sclieldt  completely,  and  consequently 
had  not  the  least  appi*ehension  that  things  would  come  to 
extremity.  When  the  intelligence  arrived  in  Antwerp 
tliat  the  prince  intended  to  throw  a  bridge  over  the 
Scheldt  the  idea  was  universally  ridiculed  as  chimerical. 
An  arrogant  comparison  was  drawn  between  the  republic 
and  the  stream,  and  it  was  said  that  the  one  would  bear 


300       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

the  Spanish  yoke  as  little  as  the  other.  "A  river  which 
is  Jwenty-four  hundred  feet  broad,  and,  with  its  own 
waters  alone,  above  sixty  feet  deep,  but  which  witli 
the  tide  rose  twelve  feet  more  —  would  such  a  stream," 
it  was  asked,  "  submit  to  be  spanned  by  a  miserable  piece 
of  paling?  Where  were  beams  to  be  found  high  enough 
to  reach  to  the  bottom  and  project  above  the  surface? 
and  how  was  a  work  of  this  kind  to  stand  in  winter, 
when  whole  islands  and  mountains  of  ice,  which  stone 
walls  could  hardly  resist,  would  be  driven  by  the  flood 
against  its  weak  timbers,  and  splinter  them  to  pieces  like 
glass?  Or,  perhaps,  the  prince  purposed  to  construct  a 
bridge  of  boats ;  if  so,  where  would  he  procure  tlie  latter, 
and  how  bring  them  into  his  intrenchments?  They  must 
necessarily  be  brought  past  Antwerp,  where  a  fleet  was 
ready  to  capture  or  sink  them." 

But  while  they  were  trying  to  prove  the  absurdity  of 
the  Prince  of  Parma's  undertaking  he  had  already  com- 
pleted it.  As  soon  as  the  forts  St.  Maria  and  St.  Philip 
were  erected,  and  protected  the  workmen  and  the  work 
by  their  fire,  a  pier  was  built  out  into  the  stream  from 
both  banks,  for  which  purpose  the  masts  of  the  largest 
vessels  were  employed ;  by  a  skilful  arrangement  of  the 
timbers  they  contrived  to  give  the  whole  such  solidity 
that,  as  the  result  proved,  it  was  able  to  resist  the  violent 
pressure  of  the  ice.  These  timbers,  which  rested  firmly 
and  securely  on  the  bottom  of  the  river,  and  projected  a 
considerable  height  above  it,  being  covered  with  planks, 
afforded  a  commodious  roadway.  It  was  wide  enough  to 
allow  eight  men  to  cross  abreast,  and  a  balustrade  that 
ran  along  it  on  both  sides,  protected  them  from  the  fire 
of  small-arms  from  the  enemy's  vessels.  This  "  stacade," 
as  it  was  called,  ran  from  the  two  opposite  shores  as 
far  as  the  increasing  depth  and  force  of  the  stream  al- 
lowed, It  reduced  the  breadth  of  the  river  to  about 
eleven  hundred  feet ;  as,  however,  the  middle  and  proper 
current  would  not  admit  of  such  a  barrier,  there  re- 
mained, thei'efore,  between  the  two  stacades  a  space  of 
more  than  six  hundred  paces  through  which  a  whole  fleet 
of  ti-ansports  could  sail  with  ease.  This  intervening  space 
the  prince  designed  to  close  by  a  bridge  of  boats,  for 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       301 

which  purpose  the  craft  must  be  procured  from  Dunkirk. 
But,  besides  that  they  could  not  be  obtained  in  any  num- 
ber at  that  place,  it  Avould  be  difficult  to  bring  them  past 
Antwerp  without  great  loss.  He  was,  therefore,  obliged 
to  content  himself  for  the  time  with  having  narrowed 
the  stream  one-half,  and  rendered  the  passage  of  the 
enemy's  vessels  so  much  the  more  difficult.  Where 
the  stacades  terminated  in  the  middle  of  the  stream  they 
spread  out  into  parallelograms,  which  were  mounted  with 
heavy  guns,  and  served  as  a  kind  of  battery  on  the  water. 
From  these  a  heavy  fire  Avas  opened  on  every  vessel  that 
attempted  to  pass  through  this  narrow  channel.  Whole 
fleets,  however,  and  single  vessels  still  attempted  and 
succeeded  in  passing  this  dangei'ous  strait. 

Meanwhile  Ghent  surrendered,  and  this  unexpected 
success  at  once  rescued  the  prince  from  his  dilemma.  He 
found  in  this  town  everything  necessary  to  complete  his 
bridge  of  boats;  and  the  only  difficulty  now  Avas  its  safe 
transport,  which  was  furnished  by  the  enemy  themselves. 
By  cutting  the  dams  at  Saftingen  a  great  part  of  the 
country  of  Waes,  as  far  as  the  village  of  Borcht,  had 
been  laid  under  water,  so  that  it  was  not  difficult  to  cross 
it  with  flat-bottomed  boats.  The  prince,  therefore,  ordered 
his  vessels  to  run  out  from  Ghent,  and  after  passing  Den- 
dermonde  and  Rupelmonde  to  pass  through  tlie  left  dyke 
of  the  Scheldt,  leaving  Antwerp  to  the  right,  and  sail 
over  the  inundated  fields  in  the  direction  of  Borcht.  To 
protect  this  passage  a  fort  was  erected  at  the  latter  vil- 
lage, which  would  keep  the  enemy  in  check.  All  suc- 
ceeded to  his  wishes,  though  not  without  a  sharp  action 
with  the  enemy's  flotilla,  which  was  sent  out  to  intercept 
this  convoy.  After  breaking  through  a  few  more  dama 
on  their  route,  they  reached  the  Spanish  quarters  at  Calloo, 
and  successfully  entered  the  Scheldt  again.  The  exulta- 
tion of  the  army  was  greater  when  they  discovered  the 
extent  of  the  danger  the  vessels  had  so  narrowly  escaped. 
Scarcely  had  thej  got  quit  of  the  enemy's  vessels  when 
a  strong  reinforcement  from  Antwerp  got  under  weigh, 
commanded  by  the  valiant  defender  of  Lillo,  Odets  von 
Teligny.  "When  this  officer  saw  that  the  affair  was  over, 
and  "that  the  enemy  had  escaped,  he  took  possession  of  the 


302       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

dam  through  wliich  their  fleet  had  passed,  and  threw  up 
a  fort  on  the  spot  in  order  to  stop  the  passage  of  any 
vessels  from  Ghent  wliich  might  attempt  to  follow  them. 

By  this  step  the  jarince  was  again  thrown  into  embar- 
rassment. He  was  far  from  having  as  yet  a  sufficient 
number  of  vessels,  either  for  the  construction  of  the  bridge 
or  for  its  defence,  and  the  passage  by  which  the  former 
convoy  had  arrived  was  now  closed  by  the  fort  erected 
by  Teligny.  While  he  was  reconnoitring  the  country  to 
discover  a  new  way  for  his  fleets  an  idea  occurred  to 
him  which  not  only  put  an  end  to  his  present  dilemma, 
but  greatly  accelerated  the  success  of  his  whole  plan. 
Not  far  from  the  village  of  Stecken,  in  Waes,  which  is 
witliin  some  five  thousand  paces  of  the  commencement  of 
the  inundation,  flows  a  small  stream  called  the  Moer, 
which  falls  into  the  Scheldt  near  Ghent.  From  this  river 
he  caused  a  canal  to  be  dug  to  the  spot  where  the  inun- 
dations began,  and  as  the  water  of  these  was  not  every- 
where deep  enough  for  the  transit  of  his  boats,  the  canal 
between  Bevern  and  Verrebroek  was  continued  to  Calloo, 
where  it  was  met  by  the  Scheldt.  At  this  work  five 
hundred  pioneers  labored  without  intermission,  and  in 
order  to  cheer  the  toil  of  the  soldiers  the  prince  himself 
took  part  in  it.  In  this  way  did  he  imitate  the  example 
of  the  two  celebrated  Romans,  Drusus  and  Corbulo,  who 
by  similar  works  had  united  the  Rhine  with  the  Zuyder 
Zee,  and  the  Maes  with  the  Rhine  ? 

This  canal,  which  the  army  in  honor  of  its  projector 
called  the  canal  of  Parma,  was  fourteen  thousand  paces 
in  length,  and  was  of  proportionable  depth  and  breadth, 
so  as  to  be  navigable  for  ships  of  a  considerable  burden. 
It  afforded  to  the  vessels  from  Ghent  not  only  a  more 
secure,  but  also  a  much  shorter  course  to  the  Spanish 
quarters,  because  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  follow  the 
many  windings  of  the  Scheldt,  bu-t  entering  the  Moer  at 
once  near  Ghent,  and  from  thence  passing  close  to 
Stecken,  they  could  proceed  through  the  canal  and  across 
the  inundated  country  as  far  as  Calloo.  As  the  pi'oduce 
of  all  Flanders  was  brought  to  the  town  of  Ghent,  this 
canal  placed  the  Spanish  camp  in  communication  with  the 
whole  province.     Abundance  poured  into  the  camp  from 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        303 

all  quarters,  so  that  during  the  whole  course  of  the  siege 
tlie  Spaniards  suffered  no  scarcity  of  any  kind.  But  the 
greatest  benefit  which  the  prince  derived  from  this  work 
was  an  adequate  supply  of  flat-bottomed  vessels  to  com- 
plete his  bridge. 

These  preparations  were  overtaken  by  the  arrival  of 
winter,  which,  as  the  Scheldt  was  filled  with  drift-ice, 
occasioned  a  considerable  delay  in  the  building  of  the 
bridge.  The  prince  had  contemplated  with  anxiety  the 
approach  of  this  season,  lest  it  should  prove  highly  destruc- 
tive to  the  work  he  had  undertaken,  and  afford  the  enemy 
a  favorable  opportunity  for  making  a  serious  attack  upon 
it.  But  the  skill  of  his  engineers  saved  him  from  the  one 
danger,  and  the  strange  inaction  of  tlie  enemy  freed  him 
from  the  other.  It  frequently  happened,  indeed,  that  at 
flood-time  large  pieces  of  ice  were  entangled  in  the 
timbers,  and  shook  them  violently,  but  they  stood  the 
assault  of  the  furious  element,  which  only  served  to  prove 
their  stability. 

In  Antwerp,  meanwhile,  important  moments  had  been 
wasted  in  futile  deliberations ;  and  in  a  struggle  of  fac- 
tions the  general  welfare  was  neglected.  The  government 
of  the  town  was  divided  among  too  many  heads,  and 
much  too  great  a  share  in  it  was  held  by  the  riotous  mob 
to  allow  room  for  calmness  of  deliberation  or  firmness  of 
action.  Besides  the  municipal  magistracy  itself,  in  which 
the  burgomaster  had  only  a  single  voice,  there  were  in 
the  city  a  number  of  guilds,  to  whom  were  consigned  the 
charge'  of  the  internal  and  external  defence,  the  provis- 
ioning of  the  town,  its  fortifications,  the  marine,  com- 
merce, etc. ;  some  of  whom  must  be  consulted  in  every 
business  of  importance.  By  means  of  this  croAvd  of 
speakers,  who  intruded  at  pleasure  into  the  council,  and 
managed  to  carry  by  clamor  and  the  number  of  their 
adherents  what  they  could  not  effect  by  their  arguments, 
the  people  obtained  a  dangerous  influence  in  the  public 
debates,  and  the  natural  struggle  of  such  discordant 
interests  retarded  the  execution  of  every  salutary  meas- 
ure. A  government  so  vacillating  and  impotent  could 
not  command  the  respect  of  unruly  sailors  and  a  lawless 
soldiery.     The  orders  of  the  state  consequently  were  but 


304       EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

imperfectly  obeyed,  and  the  decisive  moment  was  more 
tlian  once  lost  by  the  negligence,  not  to  say  the  open 
mutiny,  both  of  the  land  and  sea  forces. 

The  little  harmony  in  the  selection  of  the  means  by 
which  the  enemy  was  to  be  opposed  would  not,  however, 
have  proved  so  injurious  liad  there  but  existed  unanimity 
as  to  the  end.  But  on  this  very  point  the  wealthy  citi- 
zens and  poorer  classes  were  divided  ;  so  the  former, 
having  everything  to  apprehend  from  allowing  matters  to 
be  carried  to  extremity,  were  strongly  inclined  to  treat 
with  the  Prince  of  Parma,  This  disposition  they  did  not 
even  attempt  to  conceal  after  the  fort  of  Liefkenslioek  had 
fallen  into  the  enemy's  hands,  and  serious  fears  were 
entertained  for  the  navigation  of  the  Scheldt.  Some  of 
them,  indeed,  Avithdrew  entirely  from  the  danger,  and 
left  to  its  fate  the  town,  whose  prosperity  they  had  been 
ready  enough  to  share,  but  in  whose  adversity  they  were 
unwilling  to  bear  a  part.  From  sixty  to  seventy  of  those 
who  remained  memorialized  the  council,  advising  that 
terms  should  be  made  with  the  king.  No  sooner,  how- 
ever, hfid  the  populace  got  intelligence  of  it  than  their 
indignation  broke  out  in  a  violent  uproar,  which  was  with 
difficulty  appeased  by  the  imprisonment  and  fining  of  the 
petitioners.  Tranquillity  could  only  be  fully  restored  by 
publication  of  an  edict,  which  imposed  the  penalty  of 
death  on  all  who  either  publicly  or  privately  should 
countenance  proposals  for  peace. 

The  Prince  of  Parma  did  not  fail  to  take  advantage  of 
these  disturbances  ;  for  nothing  that  transpired  Avithin 
the  city  escaped  his  notice,  being  well  served  by  the 
agents  with  whom  he  maintained  a  secret  understanding 
with  Antwerp,  as  well  as  the  other  towns  of  Brabant  and 
Flanders.  Although  he  had  already  made  considerable 
progress  in  his  measures  for  distressing  the  town,  still  he 
had  many  steps  to  take  befoi-e  he  could  actually  make 
himself  master  of  it;  and  one  unlucky  moment  might 
destroy  the  work  of  many  months.  Without,  therefore, 
neglecting  any  of  his  wax-like  preparations,  he  determined 
to  "make  one  more  serious  attempt  to  get  possession  by 
fair  means.  With  this  object  he  despatched  a  letter  in 
November  to  the  great  councilof  Antwerp,  in  which  he 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        305 

skilfully  made  use  of  every  topic  likely  to  induce  the 
citizens  to  come  to  terms,  or  iit  least  to  increase  their 
existing  dissensions.  He  treated  them  in  this  letter  in 
the  light  of  persons  who  had  been  led  astray,  and  threw 
the  whole  blame  of  their  revolt  and  refractory  conduct 
hitherto  upon  the  intriguing  spirit  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  from  whose  artifices  the  retributive  justice  of 
heaven  had  so  lately  liberated  them.  "  It  was,"  he  said, 
"  now  in  their  power  to  awake  from  their  long  infatuation 
and  return  to  their  allegiance  to  a  monarch  who  was 
ready  and  anxious  to  be  reconciled  to  his  subjects.  For 
this  end  he  gladly  offered  himself  as  mediator,  as  he  had 
never  ceased  to  love  a  country  in  which  he  had  been  born, 
and  where  he  had  spent  the  happiest  days  of  his  youth. 
He  therefore  exhorted  them  to  send  plenipotentiaries 
Avith  whom  he  could  arrange  the  conditions  of  peace, 
and  gave  them  hopes  of  obtaining  reasonable  terms  if 
they  made  a  timely  submission,  but  also  threatened 
them  with  the  severest  treatment  if  they  pushed  matters 
to  extremity." 

This  letter,  in  which  we  are  glad  to  recognize  a  lan- 
guage very  different  from  that  which  the  Duke  of  Alva 
held  ten  years  before  on  a  similar  occasion,  was  answered 
by  the  townspeople  in  a  respectful  and  dignified  tone. 
While  they  did  full  justice  to  the  personal  character  of 
the  prince,  and  acknowledged  his  favorable  intentions 
towards  them  with  gratitude,  they  lamented  the  hardness 
of  the  times,  which  placed  it  out  of  his  power  to  treat 
them  in  accordance  with  his  character  and  disposition. 
They  declared  that  they  would  gladly  place  their  fate  in 
his  hands  if  he  were  absolute  master  of  his  actions, 
instead  of  being  obliged  to  obey  the  will  of  another, 
whose  proceedings  his  own  candor  would  not  allow  him 
to  approve  of.  The  unalterable  resolution  of  the  King 
of  Spain,  as  well  as  the  vow  which  he  had  made  to  the 
pope,  were  only  too  well  known  for  them  to  have  any 
hopes  in  that  quarter.  They  at  the  same  time  defended 
with  a  noble  warmth  the  memory  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
their  benefactor  and  preserver,  while  they  enumerated 
the  true  cases  which  had  produced  this  unhappy  war, 
and  had  caused  the  provinces  to  revolt  from  the  Spanish 


306       KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

crown.  At  the  same  time  they  did  not  disguise  from 
him  that  they  had  hopes  of  finding  a  new  and  a 
milder  master  in  the  King  of  France,  and  that,  if  only 
for  this  reason,  they  could  not  enter  into  any  treaty  with 
the  Spanish  king  without  incurring  the  charge  of  the 
most  culpable  fickleness  and  ingratitude. 

The  united  provinces,  in  fact,  dispirited  by  a  succession 
of  reverses,  had  at  last  come  to  the  determination  of 
placing  themselves  under  the  protection  and  sovereignty 
of  France,  and  of  preserving  their  existence  and  their 
ancient  privileges  by  the  sacrifice  of  their  independence. 
With  this  view  an  embassy  had  some  time  before  been 
despatched  to  Paris,  and  it  was  the  prospect  of  this  pow- 
erful assistance  which  princij^ally  supported  the  courage 
of  the  people  of  Antwerp.  Henry  III.,  King  of  France, 
was  personally  disposed  to  accept  this  offer;  but  the 
troubles  which  the  intrigues  of  the  Spaniards  contrived 
to  excite  within  his  own  kingdom  compelled  him  against 
his  will  to  abandon  it.  The  provinces  now  turned  for 
assistance  to  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  Avho  sent  them 
some  supplies,  which,  however,  came  too  late  to  save 
Antwerp.  While  the  people  of  this  city  were  awaiting 
the  issue  of  these  negotiations,  and  expecting  aid  from 
foreign  powers,  they  neglected,  unfortunately,  the  most 
natural  and  immediate  means  of  defence ;  the  whole 
winter  was  lost,  and  while  the  enemy  turned  it  to  greater 
advantage  the  more  complete  was  their  indecision  and 
inactivity. 

The  burgomaster  of  Antwerp,  St.  Aldegonde,  had, 
indeed,  repeatedly  urged  the  fleet  of  Zealand  to  attack 
the  enemy's  works,  which  should  be  supported  on  the 
other  side  from  Antvs^erp.  The  long  and  frequently 
stormy  nights  would  favor  this  attempt,  and  if  at  the 
same  time  a  sally  were  made  by  the  garrison  at  Lillo,  it 
seemed  scarcely  possible  for  the  enemy  to  resist  this  triple 
assault.  But  unfortunately  misunderstandings  had  arisen 
between  the  commander  of  the  fleet,  William  von  Blois 
von  Treslong,  and  the  admiralty  of  Zealand,  Avhich 
caused  the  equipment  of  the  fleet  to  be  most  unaccounta- 
bly delayed.  In  order  to  quicken  their  movements 
Teligny   at   last   resolved  to  go  himself  to  Middleburg, 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        307 

were  the  states  of  Zealand  were  assembled ;  but  as  the 
enemy  were  in  possession  of  all  the  roads  the  attempt  cost 
him  his  freedom  and  the  republic  its  most  valiant 
defender.  However,  there  was  no  want  of  enterprising 
vessels,  which,  under  the  favor  of  the  night  and  the  flood- 
tide,  passing  through  the  still  open  bridge  in  spite  of  the 
enemy's  fire,  threw  provisions  into  the  town  and  returned 
with  the  ebb.  But  as  many  of  these  vessels  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  the  council  gave  orders  that  they 
should  never  risk  the  passage  unless  they  amounted  to  a 
certain  number ;  and  the  result,  unfortunately,  was  that 
none  attempted  it  because  the  required  number  could  not 
be  collected  at  one  time.  Several  attacks  were  also  made 
from  Antwerp  on  the  ships  of  the  Spaniards,  which  were 
not  entirely  unsuccessful ;  some  of  the  latter  were  cap- 
tured, others  sunk,  and  all  that  was  required  was  to  exe- 
cuLe  similar  attempts  on  a  grand  scale.  But  however 
zealously  St.  Aldegonde  urged  this,  still  not  a  captain 
was  to  be  found  who  would  command  a  vessel  for  that 
purpose. 

Amid  these  delays  the  winter  expired,  and  scarcely  had 
the  ice  begun  to  disappear  when  the  construction  of  the 
bridge  of  boats  was  actively  resumed  by  the  besiegers. 
Between  the  two  piers  a  space  of  more  than  six  hundred 
paces  still  remained  to  be  filled  up,  which  was  effected  in 
the  following  manner :  Thirty-two  flat-bottomed  vessels, 
each  sixty-six  feet  long  and  twenty  broad,  were  fastened 
together  with  stronsr  cables  and  iron  chains,  but  at  a  dis- 
tance  from  each  other  of  about  twenty  feet  to  allow  a 
free  passage  to  the  stream.  Each  boat,  moreover,  was 
moored  with  two  cables,  both  up  and  down  the  stream, 
but  which,  as  the  water  rose  with  the  tide,  or  sunk  with 
the  ebb,  could  be  slackened  or  tightened.  Upon  the 
boats  great  masts  were  laid  Avhich  reached  from  one  to 
another,  and,  being  covered  with  planks,  formed  a  regular 
road,  which,  like  that  along  the  piers,  Avas  protected  with 
a  balustrade.  This  bridge  of  boats,  of  which  the  two  piers 
formed  a  continuation,  had,  including  the  latter,  a  length 
of  twenty-four  thousand  paces.  This  formidable  work 
was  so  ingeniously  constructed,  and  so  richly  furnished 
with  the  instruments  of  destruction,  that  it  seemed  almost 


308       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

capable,  like  a  living  creature,  of  defending  itself  at  the 
word  of  command,  scattering  death  among  all  who 
approached.  Besides  the  two  forts  of  St.  Maria  and  St. 
Philip,  wliich  terminated  the  bridge  on  either  shore,  and 
the  two  wooden  bastions  on  the  bridge  itself,  which  were 
filled  with  soldiers  and  mounted  with  guns  on  all  sides, 
each  of  the  two-and-thirty  vessels  was  manned  with  thirty 
soldiers  and  four  sailors,  and  showed  the  cannon's  mouth 
to  the  enemy,  whether  he  came  up  from  Zealand  or  down 
from  Antwerp.  There  were  in  all  ninety-seven  cannon, 
which  were  distributed  beneath  and  above  the  bridge, 
and  more  than  fifteen  hundred  men  who  were  posted, 
partly  in  the  forts,  partly  in  the  vessels,  and,  in  case  of 
necessity,  could  maintain  a  terrible  fire  of  small-arms 
upon  the  enemy. 

But  with  all  this  the  prince  did  not  consider  his  work 
sufticiently  secure.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  enemy 
would  leave  nothing  unattempted  to  burst  by  the  force 
of  his  machines  the  middle  and  weakest  part.  To  guard 
against  this,  he  erected  in  a  line  with  the  bridge  of  boats, 
but  at  some  distance  from  it,  another  distinct  defence, 
intended  to  break  the  force  of  any  attack  that  might  be 
directed  aijainst  the  bridge  itself.  This  work  consisted 
of  thirty-three  vessels  of  considerable  magnitude,  which 
were  moored  in  a  row  athwart  the  stream  and  fastened 
in  threes  by  masts,  so  that  they  formed  eleven  different 
groups.  Each  of  these,  like  a  file  of  pikemen,  presented 
fourteen  long  wooden  poles  with  iron  heads  to  the  ap- 
pi'oaching  enemy.  These  vessels  were  loaded  merely 
with  ballast,  and  were  anchored  each  by  a  double  but 
slack  cable,  so  as  to  be  able  to  give  to  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  tide.  As  they  were  in  constant  motion  they  got  from 
the  soldiers  the  name  of  "  swimmers."  The  whole  bridge 
of  boats  and  also  a  part  of  the  piers  were  covered  by 
these  swimmers,  which  were  stationed  above  as  well  as 
below  the  bridge.  To  all  these  defensive  preparations 
was  added  a  fleet  of  forty  men-of-war,  which  were  sta- 
tioned on  both  coasts  and  served  as  a  protection  to  the 
whole. 

This  astonishing  work  was  finished  in  March,  1585,  the 
seventh  month  of  the  siege,  and  the  day  on  which  it  was 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        309 

completed  was  kept  as  a  jubilee  by  the  troops.  The 
great  event  was  announced  to  the  besieged  by  a  grand 
feu  de  Joie,  and  the  army,  as  if  to  enjoy  ocular  demon- 
stration of  its  triumph,  extended  itself  along  the  whole 
platform  to  gaze  upon  the  proud  stream,  peacefully  and 
obediently  flowing  under  the  yoke  which  had  been 
imposed  upon  it.  All  the  toil  they  had  undergone  was 
forgotten  in  the  delightful  spectacle,  and  every  man  who 
had  had  a  hand  in  it,  however  insignificant  he  might  be, 
assumed  to  himself  a  portion  of  the  honor  which  the 
successful  execution  of  so  gigantic  an  enterprise  conferred 
on  its  illustrious  projector.  On  the  other  hand,  nothing 
could  equal  the  consternation  which  seized  the  citizens  of 
Antwerp  when  intelligence  was  brought  them  that  the 
Scheldt  was  now  actually  closed,  and  all  access  from 
Zealand  cut  off.  To  increase  their  dismay  they  learned 
the  fall  of  Brussels  also,  which  had  at  last  been  com- 
pelled by  famine  to  capitulate.  An  attempt  made  by 
the  Count  of  Hohenlohe  about  the  same  time  on  Herzo- 
genbusch,  with  a  view  to  recapture  the  town,  or  at  least 
form  a  diversion,  was  equally  unsuccessful ;  and  thus  the 
unfortunate  city  lost  all  hope  of  assistance,  both  by  sea 
and  laud. 

These  evil  tidings  were  brought  them  by  some  fugi- 
tives who  had  succeeded  in  passing  the  Spanish  videttes, 
and  had  made  their  way  into  the  town  ;  and  a  spy,  whom 
the  burgomaster  had  sent  out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's 
works,  increased  the  general  alarm  by  his  report.  He 
had  been  seized  and  carried  before  the  Prince  of  Parma, 
who  commanded  him  to  be  conducted  over  all  the  works, 
and  all  the  defences  of  the  bridge  to  be  pointed  out  to 
him.  After  this  had  been  done  he  was  again  brought 
before  tli<!  general,  who  dismissed  him  with  these  words: 
"  Go,"  said  he,  "  and  report  what  you  have  seen  to  those 
Avho  sent  you.  And  tell  them,  too,  that  it  is  my  firm 
resolve  to  bury  myself  under  the  ruins  of  this  bridge  or 
by  means  of  it  to  pass  into  your  town." 

But  the  certainty  of  danger  now  at  last  awakened  the 
zeal  of  the  confederates,  and  it  was  no  fault  of  theirs  if 
the  former  half  of  the  prince's  vow  was  not  fulfilled. 
The  latter  had  long  viewed  with  apprehension  the  prep- 


310       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

arations  which  were  making  in  Zealand  for  the  relief  of 
the  town.  He  saw  clearly  that  it  was  from  this  quarter 
that  he  had  to  fear  the  most  dangerous  blow,  and  that 
Avith  all  his  works  he  could  not  make  head  against  the 
combined  fleets  of  Zealand  and  Antwerp  if  they  were  to 
fall  upon  him  at  the  same  time  and  at  the  proper  mo- 
ment. For  a  while  the  delays  of  the  admiral  of  Zealand,  • 
which  he  had  labored  by  all  the  means  in  his  power  to 
prolong,  had  been  his  security,  but  now  the  urgent  neces- 
sity accelerated  the  expedition,  and  without  waiting  for 
the  admiral  the  states  at  Middleburg  despatched  the 
Count  Justin  of  Nassau,  with  as  many  ships  as  they 
could  muster,  to  the  assistance  of  the  besieged.  Tliis 
fleet  took  up  a  position  before  Liefkenshoek,  which  was 
in  possession  of  the  Spaniards,  and,  supported  by  a  few 
vessels  from  the  opposite  fort  of  Lillo,  cannonaded  it 
with  such  success  that  the  walls  were  in  a  short  time 
demolished,  and  the  place  carried  by  storm.  The  Wal- 
loons who  formed  the  garrison  did  not  display  the  firm- 
ness which  might  have  been  expected  from  soldiers  of 
the  Duke  of  Parma ;  they  shamefully  suiTendered  the 
fort  to  the  enemy,  w^ho  in  a  short  time  were  in  possession 
of  the  whole  island  of  Doel,  with  all  the  redoubts  sit- 
uated upon  it.  The  loss  of  these  places,  which  were, 
however,  soon  retaken,  incensed  the  Duke  of  Parma  so 
much  that  he  tried  the  ofiicers  by  court-martial,  and 
caused  the  most  culpable  among  them  to  be  beheaded. 
Meanwhile  this  important  conquest  opened  to  the  Zea- 
landers  a  free  passage  as  far  as  the  bridge,  and  after  con- 
certing with  the  people  of  Antwerp  the  time  was  fixed 
for  a  combined  attack  on  this  work.  It  was  arranged 
that,  while  the  bridge  of  boats  was  blown  up  by  macliines 
already  prepared  in  Antwerp,  the  Zealand  fleet,  with  a 
sufiicient  supply  of  provisions,  should  be  in  the  vicinity, 
ready  to  sail  to  the  town  through  the  opening. 

While  the  Duke  of  Parma  was  engaged  in  constructing 
his  bridge  an  engineer  within  the  walls  was  already  pre- 
paring the  materials  for  its  destruction.  Frederick 
Gianibelli  was  the  name  of  the  man  whom  fate  had 
destined  to  be  the  Archimedes  of  Antwerp,  and  to  ex- 
haust in  its  defence  the  same  ingenuity  with  the  same 


ESVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        311 

want  of  success.  He  was  born  in  Mantua,  and  had 
formerly  visited  Madrid  for  the  purpose,  it  was  said,  of 
offering  his  services  to  King  Philip  in  the  Belgian  war. 
But  wearied  with  waiting  tlie  offended  engineer  left  the 
court  with  the  intention  of  making  the  King  of  Spain 
sensibly  feel  the  value  of  talents  which  he  had  so  little 
known  how  to  appreciate.  He  next  sought  the  service  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  the  declared  enemy  of  Spain, 
who,  after  witnessing  a  few  specimens  of  his  skill,  sent 
him  to  Antwerp.  He  took  up  his  residence  in  that  town, 
and  in  the  present  extremity  devoted  to  its  defence  his 
knowledge,  his  energy,  and  his  zeal. 

As  soon  as  this  artist  perceived  that  the  project  of 
erecting  the  bridge  was  seriously  intended,  and  that  the 
work  was  fast  approaching  to  completion,  he  applied  to 
the  magistracy  for  three  large  vessels,  from  a  hundred 
and  fifty  to  five  hundred  tons,  in  which  he  proposed  to 
place  mines.  He  also  demanded  sixty  boats,  which, 
fastened  together  with  cables  and  chains,  furnished  witli 
projecting  grappling-irons,  and  put  in  motion  with  the 
ebbing  of  the  tide,  were  intended  to  second  the  operation 
of  the  mine-ships  by  being  directed  in  a  wedgelike  form 
against  the  bridge.  But  he  had  to  deal  with  men  who 
were  quite  incapable  of  comprehending  an  idea  out  of 
the  common  way,  and  even  where  the  salvation  of  their 
country  was  at  stake  could  not  forget  the  calculating 
habits  of  trade. 

His  scheme  was  rejected  as  too  expensive,  and  w4th 
difficulty  he  at  last  obtained  the  grant  of  two  smaller 
vessels,  from  seventy  to  eighty  tons,  with  a  number  of 
flat-bottomed  boats.  With  these  two  vessels,  one  of 
which  he  called  the  "  Fortune  "  and  the  other  the  "  Hope," 
he  proceeded  in  the  following  manner :  In  the  hold  of 
each  he  built  a  hollow  chamber  of  freestone,  five  feet 
broad,  three  and  a  half  high,  and  forty  long.  This  maga- 
zine he  filled  with  sixty  hundredweight  of  the  finest 
priming  powder  of  his  own  compounding,  and  covered  it 
with  as  heavy  a  weight  of  large  slabs  and  millstones  as 
the  vessels  could  carry.  Over  these  he  further  added  a 
roof  of  similar  stones,  which  ran  up  to  a  point  and  pro- 
jected six  feet  above  the  ship's  side.     The  deck  itself 


312       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

was  crammed  with  iron  chains  and  hooks,  knives,  nails, 
and    other   destructive   missiles;    the    remaining    space, 
which  was  not  occupied  by  the  magazine,  was  likewise 
filled  up  with  planks.     Several  small  apertures  were  left 
in  the  chamber  for  the  matches  which  were  to  set  fire  to 
the  mine.     For  greater  certainty  he  had  also  contrived  a 
piece  of  mechanism  which,  after  the  lapse  of  a  given  time, 
would  strike  out  sparks,  and  even  if  the  matches  failed 
would  set  the  ship  on  fire.     To  delude  the  enemy  into  a 
belief  that  these  machines  were  only  intended  to  set  the 
bridge  on  fire,  a  composition  of  brimstone  and  pitch  was 
placed  in  the  top,  which  could  burn  a  whole  hour.     And 
still  further  to  divert   tlie  enemy's   attention   from  the 
proper  seat  of  danger,  he  also  prepared  thirty-two  flat- 
bottomed  boats,  upon  which  there  were  only  fireworks 
burning,  and  whose  sole  object  was  to  deceive  the  enemy. 
These  fire-ships  were  to  be  sent  down  upon  the  bridge  in 
four  separate  squadrons,  at  intervals  of  half  an  hour,  and 
keep  the  enemy  incessantly  engaged  for  two  whole  hours, 
so  that,  tired  of  firing  and  wearied  by  vain  expectation, 
they  might  at  last  relax  their  vigilance  before  the  real 
fire-ships  came.     In  addition  to  all  tliis  he  also  despatched 
a  few  vessels  in  which  powder  was  concealed  in  order  to 
blow  up  the  floating  work  before  the  bridge,  and  to  clear 
a  passage  for  the  two  principal  ships.     At  .the  same  time 
he  hoped  by  this  preliminary  attack  to  engage  the  enemy's 
attention,  to  draw  them  out,  and  expose  them  to  the  full 
deadly  effect  of  the  volcano. 

The  night  between  the  4th  and  5th  of  April  was  fixed 
for  the  execution  of  this  great  undertaking.  An  obscure 
rumor  of  it  had  already  diffused  itself  through  the  Span- 
ish camp,  and  particularly  from  the  circumstance  of  many 
divers  from  Antwerp  having  been  detected  endeavoring 
to  cut  the  cables  of  the  vessels.  Tliey  were  prepared, 
therefore,  for  a  serious  attack;  they  only  mistook  the 
real  nature  of  it,  and  counted  on  having  to  fight  rather 
with  man  than  the  elements.  In  this  expectation  the 
duke  caused  the  guards  along  the  whole  bank  to  be 
doubled,  and  drew  up  the  chief  part  of  his  troo]is  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  bridge,  where  he  was  present  in  person  ; 
thus  meeting  the  danger  while  endeavoring  to  avoid  it. 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        313 

No  sooner  was  it  dark  than  three  burning  vessels  were 
seen  to  float  down  from  the  city  towards  the  bridge, 
then  three  more,  and  directly  after  the  same  number. 
They  beat  to  arms  throughout  the  Spanish  camp,  and  the 
whole  length  of  the  bridge  was  crowded  with  soldiers. 
Meantime  the  number  of  the  fire-ships  increased,  and  they 
came  in  regular  order  down  the  stream,  sometimes  two 
and  sometimes  three  abreast,  being  at  first  steered  by 
sailors  on  board  them.  The  admiral  of  the  Antwerp 
fleet,  Jacob  Jacobson  (whether  designedly  or  through 
carelessness  is  not  known),  had  committed  the  error  of 
sending  off  the  four  squadrons  of  fire-ships  too  quickly 
one  after  another,  and  caused  the  two  large  mine-ships 
also  to  follow  them  too  soon,  and  thus  disturbed  the 
intended  order  of  attack. 

The  array  of  vessels  kept  approaching,  and  the  dark- 
ness of  night  still  further  heightened  the  extraordinary 
spectacle.  As  far  as  the  eye  could  follow  the  course  of 
the  stream  all  was  fire  ;  the  fire-ships  burning  as  brilliantly 
as  if  they  were  themselves  in  the  flames;  the  surface  of 
the  water  glittered  with  light;  the  dykes  and  the  bat- 
teries along  the  shore,  the  flags,  arms,  and  accoutrements 
of  the  soldiers  who  lined  the  rivers  as  well  as  the  bridges 
were  clearly  distinguishable  in  the  glare.  With  a  mingled 
sensation  of  awe  and  pleasure  the  soldiers  watched  the 
unusual  sight,  which  rather  resembled  a  fete  than  a 
hostile  preparation,  but  from  the  very  strangeness  of  the 
contrast  filled  the  mind  with  a  mysterious  awe.  When 
the  burning  fleet  had  come  within  two  thousand  paces  of 
the  bridge  those  who  had  the  charge  of  it  lighted  the 
matches,  impelled  the  two  mine-vessels  into  the  middle 
of  the  stream,  and  leaving  the  others  to  the  guidance  of 
the  current  of  the  waves,  they  hastily  made  their  escape 
in  boats  which  had  been  kept  in  readiness. 

Their  course,  however,  was  irregular,  and  destitute  of 
steersmen  they  arrived  singly  and  separately  at  the  float- 
ing works,  where  they  continued  hanging  or  were  dashed 
off  sidewise  on  the  shore.  The  foremost  powder-ships, 
which  were  intended  to  set  fire  to  the  floating  works, 
were  cast,  by  the  force  of  a  squall  which  arose  at  that 
instant,  on  the  Flemish  coast.    One  of  the  two,  the  "  For- 


314       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

tune,"  grounded  in  its  passage  before  it  reached  the  bridge, 
and  killed  by  its  explosion  some  Spanish  soldiers  who  were 
at  work  in  a  neighboring  battery.  The  other  and  larger 
fire-ship,  called  the  "  Hope,"  narrowly  escaped  a  similar 
fate.  The  current  drove  her  against  the  floating  defences 
towards  the  Flemish  bank,  where  it  remained  hanging, 
and  had  it  taken  fire  at  that  moment  the  greatest  part  of 
its  effect  would  have  been  lost.  Deceived  by  the  flames 
which  this  machine,  like  the  other  vessels,  emitted,  the 
Spaniards  took  it  for  a  common  tire-ship,  intended  to  burn 
the  bridge  of  boats.  And  as  they  had  seen  them  ex- 
tinguished one  after  the  other  without  further  effect  all 
fears  were  dispelled,  and  the  Spaniards  began  to  ridicule 
the  preparations  of  the  enemy,  which  had  been  ushered 
in  with  so  much  display  and  now  had  so  absurd  an  end. 
Some  of  the  boldest  threw  themselves  into  the  stream  in 
order  to  get  a  close  view  of  the  fire-ship  and  extinguish  it, 
when  by  its  weight  it  suddenly  broke  through,  burst  the 
floating  work  which  had  detained  it,  and  drove  with 
terrible  force  on  the  bridge  of  boats.  All  was  now  in 
commotion  on  the  bridge,  and  the  prince  called  to  the 
sailors  to  keep  the  vessel  off  with  poles,  and  to  extinguish 
the  flames  before  they  caught  the  timbers. 

At  this  critical  moment  he  was  standing  at  the  farthest 
end  of  the  left  pier,  where  it  formed  a  bastion  in  the 
water  and  joined  the  bridge  of  boats.  By  his  side  stood 
the  Margrave  of  Rysburg,  general  of  cavalry  and  gov- 
ernor of  the  province  of  Artois,  who  had  formerly  served 
the  states,  but  from  a  protector  of  the  republic  had 
become  its  worst  enemy ;  the  Baron  of  Billy,  governor  of 
Friesland  and  commander  of  the  German  regiments ;  the 
Generals  Cajetan  and  Guasto,  with  several  of  the  principal 
ofiicers ;  all  forgetful  of  their  own  danger  and  entirely 
occupied  with  averting  the  general  calamity.  At  this 
moment  a  Spanish  ensign  approached  the  Prince  of 
Parma  and  conjured  him  to  remove  from  a  place  where 
his  life  was  in  manifest  and  imminent  peril.  No  attention 
being  paid  to  his  entreaty  he  repeated  it  still  more  ur- 
gently, and  at  last  fell  at  his  feet  and  implored  him  in 
this  one  instance  to  take  advice  from  his  servant.  While 
he  said  this  he  had  laid  hold  of  the  duke's  coat  as  though 


^«S:iSj:i^2t»S^j 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       315 

he  wished  forcibly  to  draw  him  away  from  the  spot,  and 
the  latter,  surprised  rather  at  the  man's  boldness  than 
jjersuaded  by  his  arguments,  retired  at  last  to  the  shore, 
attended  by  Cajetan  and  Guasto.  He  had  scarcely  time 
to  reach  the  fort  St.  Maria  at  the  end  of  the  bridge  when 
an  explosion  took  place  behind  him,  just  as  if  the  earth 
bad  burst  or  the  vault  of  heaven  given  way.  The  duke 
and  his  whole  army  fell  to  the  ground  as  dead,  and 
several  minutes  elapsed  before  they  recovered  their  con- 
sciousness. 

But  then  what  a  sight  presented  itself!  The  waters  of 
the  Scheldt  had  been  divided  to  its  lowest  depth,  and 
driven  with  a  surge  which  rose  like  a  wall  above  the  dam 
that  confined  it,  so  that  all  the  fortifications  on  the  banks 
were  several  feet  under  water.  The  earth  shook  for  three 
miles  round.  Nearly  the  whole  left  pier,  on  which  the 
fire-ship  had  been  driven,  with  a  part  of  the  bridge  of 
boats,  had  been  burst  and  shattered  to  atoms,  Avith  all 
that  was  upon  it ;  spars,  cannon,  and  men  blown  into  the 
air.  Even  the  enormous  blocks  of  stone  which  had 
covered  the  mine  had,  by  the  force  of  the  explosion,  been 
hurled  into  the  neighboring  fields,  so  that  many  of  them 
were  afterwards  dug  out  of  the  ground  at  a  distance  of  a 
thousand  paces  from  the  bridge.  Six  vessels  were  buried, 
several  had  gone  to  pieces.  But  still  more  terrible  was 
the  carnage  which  the  murderous  machine  had  dealt 
amongst  the  soldiers.  Five  hundred,  according  to  other 
reports  even  eight  hundred,  were  sacrificed  to  its  fury, 
without  reckoning  those  who  escaped  with  mutilated  or 
injured  bodies.  The  most  opposite  kinds  of  death  were 
combined  in  this  frightful  moment.  Some  were  con- 
sumed by  the  flames  of  the  explosion,  others  scalded  to 
death  by  the  boiling  water  of  the  river,  others  stifled 
by  the  poisonous  vapor  of  the  brimstone ;  some  were 
drowned  in  the  stream,  some  buried  under  the  hail  of 
falling  masses  of  rock,  many  cut  to  pieces  by  the  knives 
and  hooks,  or  shattered  by  the  balls  which  were  poured 
from  the  bowels  of  the  machine.  Some  were  found  life- 
less without  any  visible  injury,  having  in  all  probability 
been  killed  by  the  mere  concussion  of  the  air.  The  spec- 
tacle which  presented  itself  directly  after  the  firing  of  the 


316       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

mine  was  feai-ful.  Men  were  seen  wedsjed  between  the 
palisades  of  the  bridge,  or  struggling  to  release  them- 
selves from  beneath  ponderous  masses  of  rock,  or  hanging 
in  the  rigging  of  the  ships;  and  from  all  places  and 
quarters  the  most  heartrending  cries  for  help  arose,  but 
as  each  was  absorbed  in  his  own  safety  these  could  only 
be  answered  by  helpless  wailings. 

Many  had  escaped  in  the  most  wonderful  manner.  An 
officer  named  Tucci  was  carried  by  the  whirhvind  like  a 
feather  high  into  the  air,  where  he  was  for  a  moment 
suspended,  and  then  dropped  into  the  river,  where  he 
saved  himself  by  swimming.  Another  was  taken  up  by 
the  force  of  the  blast  from  the  Flanders  shore  and  de- 
posited on  that  of  Brabant,  incurring  merely  a  slight 
contusion  on  the  shoulder;  he  felt,  as  he  afterwards  said, 
during  this  rapid  aerial  transit,  just  as  if  he  had  been 
fired  out  of  a  cannon.  The  Prince  of  Parma  himself  had 
never  been  so  near  death  as  at  that  moment,  when  half  a 
minute  saved  his  life.  He  had  scarcely  set  foot  in  the 
fort  of  St.  Maria  when  he  was  lifted  off  his  feet  as  if  by 
a  hurricane,  and  a  beam  which  struck  him  on  the  head 
and  shoulders  stretched  him  senseless  on  the  earth.  For 
a  long  time  he  was  believed  to  be  actually  killed,  many 
remembering  to  have  seen  him  on  the  bridge  only  a  few 
minutes  before  the  fatal  explosion.  He  was  found  at 
last  between  his  attendants,  Cajetan  and  Guasto,  raising 
himself  up  with  his  hand  on  his  sword ;  and  the  intelli- 
gence stirred  the  spirits  of  the  whole  army.  But  vain 
would  be  the  attempt  to  depict  his  feelings  when  he  sur- 
veyed the  devastation  which  a  single  moment  had  caused 
in  the  work  of  so  many  months.  The  bridge  of  boats, 
upon  which  all  his  hopes  rested,  was  rent  asunder;  a 
great  part  of  his  army  was  destroyed;  another  portion 
maimed  and  rendered  ineffective  for  many  days ;  many 
of  his  best  officers  were  killed;  and,  as  if  the  present 
calamity  were  not  sufficient,  he  had  now  to  learn  the 
painful  intelligence  that  the  Margrave  of  Rysburg,  whom 
of  all  his  officers  he  prized  the  highest,  was  missing.  And 
yet  the  worst  was  still  to  come,  for  every  moment  tlie 
fleets  of  the  enemy  were  to  be  expected  from  Antwerp 
and  Lillo,  to  Avhich  this  fearful  -position  of   the  army 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       317 

would  disable  him  from  offering  any  effectual  resistance. 
The  bridge  was  entirely  destroyed,  and  nothing  could 
prevent  the  fleet  from  Zealand  passing  through  in  full 
sail;  while  the  confusion  of  the  troops  in  this  first 
luoment  was  so  great  and  general  that  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  give  or  obey  orders,  as  many  corps  had  lost 
their  commanding  officers,  and  many  commanders  their 
corps ;  and  even  the  places  where  they  had  been  stationed 
were  no  longer  to  be  recognized  amid  the  general  ruin. 
Add  to  this  that  all  the  batteries  on  shore  were  under 
water,  that  several  cannon  were  sunk,  that  the  matches 
were  wet,  and  the  ammunition  damaged.  What  a  moment 
for  the  enemy  if  they  had  known  how  to  avail  themselves 
of  it! 

It  will  scarcely  be  believed,  however,  that  this  success, 
which  surpassed  all  expectation,  was  lost  to  Antwerp, 
simply  because  nothing  was  known  of  it.  St.  Aldegonde, 
indeed,  as  soon  as  tlie  explosion  of  the  mine  was  heard  in 
the  town,  had  sent  out  several  galleys  in  the  direction 
of  the  bridge,  with  orders  to  send  up  fire-balls  and  rockets 
the  moment  they  had  passed  it,  and  then  to  sail  with  the 
intelligence  straight  on  to  Lillo,  in  order  to  bring  up, 
without  delay,  the  Zealand  fleet,  which  had  orders  to 
co-operate.  At  the  same  time  the  admiral  of  Antwerp 
was  ordered,  as  soon  as  the  signal  was  given,  to  sail  out 
Avith  his  vessels  and  attack  the  enemy  in  their  first  con- 
sternation. But  although  a  considerable  reward  was  prom- 
ised to  the  boatmen  sent  to  reconnoitre  they  did  not 
venture  near  the  enemy,  but  returned  ^vithout  effecting 
their  purpose,  and  reported  that  the  bridge  of  boats  was 
uninjured,  and  the  fire-ship  had  had  no  effect.  Even  on 
the  following  day  also  no  better  measures  were  taken  to 
learn  the  true  state  of  the  bridge ;  and  as  the  fleet  at 
Lillo,  in  spite  of  the  favorable  wind,  was  seen  to  remain 
inactive,  the  belief  that  the  fire-ships  had  accomplished 
nothing  was  confirmed.  It  did  not  seem  to  occur  to  any 
one  that  this  very  inactivity  of  the  confederates,  Avhich 
misled  the  people  of  Antwerp,  might  also  keep  back  the 
Zealanders  at  Lillo,  as  in  fact  it  did.  So  signal  an  in- 
stance of  neglect  could  only  have  occurred  in  a  govern- 
ment, which,  without  dignity  of  independence,  was  guided 


318        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

by  the  tumultuous  multitude  it  ought  to  liaA-e  governed. 
The  more  supine,  however,  they  were  themselves  in  op- 
posing the  enemy,  the  more  violently  did  their  rage  boil 
against  Gianibelli,  whom  the  frantic  mob  would  have  torn 
in  pieces  if  they  could  have  caught  liim.  For  two  days 
tlie  engineer  was  in  the  most  imminent  danger,  until  at 
last,  on  the  third  morning,  a  courier  from  Lillo,  who  had 
swam  under  the  bridge,  brouglit  authentic  intelligence  of 
its  having  been  destroyed,  but  at  the  same  time  announced 
that  it  had  been  repaired. 

This  rapid  restoration  of  the  bridge  was  really  a  miracu- 
lous effort  of  the  Prince  of  Parma.  Scarcely  had  he 
recovered  from  the  shock,  which  seemed  to  have  over- 
thrown all  his  plans,  when  he  contrived,  w^ith  Avonderful 
presence  of  mind,  to  j^revent  all  its  evil  consequences. 
The  absence  of  the  enemy's  fleet  at  this  decisive  moment 
revived  his  hopes.  The  ruinous  state  of  the  bridge  aj)- 
jieared  to  be  a  secret  to  them,  and  though  it  Avas  impos- 
sible to  repair  in  a  few  hours  the  work  of  so  many  months, 
yet  a  great  point  would  be  gained  if  it  could  be  done 
even  in  appearance.  All  his  men  were  immediately  set 
to  work  to  remove  the  ruins,  to  raise  the  timbers  Avhich 
had  been  thrown  down,  to  replace  those  wliicli  were 
demolished,  and  to  fill  up  the  chasms  with  ships.  The 
duke  himself  did  not  refuse  to  share  in  the  toil,  and  his 
example  was  followed  by  all  his  officers.  Stimulated  by 
this  popular  behavior,  the  common  soldiers  exerted  them- 
selves to  the  utmost ;  the  work  was  carried  on  during  the 
whole  night  under  the  constant  sounding  of  drums  and 
trumpets,  which  were  distributed  along  the  bridge  to 
drown  the  noise  of  the  work-people.  With  dawn  of  day 
few  traces  remained  of  the  night's  havoc;  and  although 
the  bridge  was  restored  only  in  appearance,  it  neverthe- 
less deceived  the  spy,  and  consequently  no  attack  was 
made  upon  it.  In  the  meantime  the  prince  contrived  to 
make  tlie  repairs  solid,  nay,  even  to  introduce  some 
essential  alterations  in  the  structure.  In  order  to  guard 
against  similar  accidents  for  the  future,  a  pai-t  of  the 
bridge  of  boats  was  made  movable,  so  that  in  case 
of  necessity  it  could  be  taken  away  and  a  passage  opened 
to  the  fire-ships.     His  loss  of  men  was  supplied  from  the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        319 

garrisons  of  the  adjoining  places,  and  by  a  German 
i-egiment  wliicli  arrived  A^ery  opportunely  from  Gueldres. 
He  filled  up  the  vacancies  of  the  officers  who  were  killed, 
and  in  doing  this  he  did  not  forget  the  Spanish  ensign 
who  had  saved  his  life. 

The  peo])le  of  Antwerp,  after  learning  the  success  of 
their  mine-ship,  now  did  homage  to  the  inventor  with  as 
much  extravaoance  as  thev  had  a  short  time  before  mis- 
trusted  him,  and  they  encouraged  his  genius  to  new 
attempts.  Gianibelli  now  actually  obtained  the  number 
of  flat-bottomed  vessels  which  he  had  at  first  demanded 
in  vain,  and  these  he  equipped  in  such  a  manner  that  they 
struck  with  irresistible  force  on  the  bridge,  and  a  second 
time  also  burst  and  separated  it.  But  this  time,  the  wind 
was  contrary  to  the  Zealand  fleet,  so  that  they  ceuld  not 
put  out,  and  thus  the  prince  obtained  once  more  the 
necessary  respite  to  rej^air  the  damage.  The  Archimedes 
of  Antwerp  was  not  deterred  by  any  of  these  disappoint- 
ments. Anew  he  fitted  out  two  large  vessels  which  were 
armed  with  iron  hooks  and  similar  instruments  in  order 
to  tear  asunder  the  bridge.  But  when  the  moment  came 
for  these  vessels  to  get  under  weigh  no  one  was  found 
ready  to  embark  in  them.  The  engineer  was  therefore 
obliged  to  think  of  a  plan  for  giving  to  these  machines 
such  a  self-imjDulse  that,  without  being  guided  by  a 
steei-sman,  they  would  keep  the  middle  of  the  stream, 
and  not,  like  the  former  ones,  be  driven  on  the  bank  by 
the  wind.  One  of  his  workmen,  a  German,  here  hit  upon 
a  strange  invention,  if  Strada's  description  of  it  is  to  be 
credited.  He  affixed  a  sail  under  the  vessel,  which  was 
to  be  acted  upon  by  the  water,  just  as  an  ordinary  sail  is 
by  the  wind,  and  could  thus  impel  the  ship  with  the 
whole  force  of  the  current.  The  result  proved  the  coi-- 
rectness  of  his  calculation  ;  for  this  vessel,  with  the  posi- 
tion of  its  sails  reversed,  not  only  kept  the  centre  of  the 
stream,  but  also  ran  against  the  bridge  with  such  impetu- 
osity that  the  enemy  had  not  time  to  open  it  and  was 
actually  burst  asunder.  But  all  these  results  were  of  no 
service  to  the  town,  because  the  attempts  were  made  at 
random  and  were  supported  by  no  adequate  force.  A 
new  fire-ship,  equipped  like  the  former,  which  had    sue- 


o 


20  REVOLT    OF   THE    NETHERLANDS. 


ceeded  so  well,  and  which  Gimiibelli  had  filled  with  four 
thousand  pounds  of  the  finest  powder  was  not  even  used; 
for  a  new  mode  of  attempting  their  deliverance  had  now 
occurred  to  the  people  of  Antwerp. 

Terrified  by  so  many  futile  attempts  from  endeavoring 
to  clear  a  passage  for  vessels  on  the  river  by  force,  they 
at  last  came  to  the  determination  of  doing  witliout  the 
stream  entirely.  They  remembered  the  example  of  the 
town  of  Ley  den,  which,  when  besieged  by  the  Spaniards 
ten  years  before,  had  saved  itself  by  opportunely  inundat- 
ing the  surrounding  country,  and  it  was  resolved  to 
imitate  this  example.  Between  Lillo  and  Stabroek,  in  the 
district  of  Bergen,  a  wide  and  somewhat  sloping  plain 
extends  as  far  as  Antwerp,  being  protected  by  numerous 
embankments  and  counter-embankments  against  the  irrup- 
tions of  the  East  Scheldt.  Nothing  more  was  requisite 
than  to  break  these  dams,  when  the  whole  plain  would 
become  a  sea,  navigable  bv  flat-bottomed  vessels  almost 
to  the  very  walls  of  Antwerp.  If  this  attempt  should 
succeed,  the  Duke  of  Parma  might  keep  the  Scheldt 
guarded  with  his  bridge  of  boats  as  long  as  he  pleased ; 
a  new  river  would  be  formed,  which,  in  case  of  necessity, 
would  be  equally  serviceable  for  the  time.  This  was  the 
very  plan  which  the  Prince  of  Orange  had  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  siege  recommended,  and  in  which  he 
had  been  strenuously,  but  unsuccessfully,  seconded  by  St. 
Aldegonde,  because  some  of  the  citizens  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  sacrifice  their  own  fields.  In  the  present 
emergency  they  reverted  to  this  last  resource,  but  circum- 
stances in  the  meantime  had  greatly  changed. 

The  plain  in  question  is  intersected  b'y  a  broad  and 
high  dam,  which  takes  its  name  from  the  adjacent  Castle 
of  Cowenstein,  and  extends  for  three  miles  from  the 
village  of  Stabroek,  in  Bergen,  as  far  as  the  Scheldt,  with 
the  great  dam  of  which  it  unites  near  Ordam.  Beyond 
this  dam  no  vessels  can  proceed,  however  hi^h  the  tide, 
and  the  sea  would  be  vainly  turned  into  the  fields  as  long 
as  such  an  embankment  remained  in  the  way,  which 
would  prevent  the  Zealand  vessels  from  descending  into 
the  plain  before  Antwerp.  The  fate  of  the  town  would 
therefore  depend  upon  the  demolition  of  this  Cowensteia 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       321 

dam ;  but,  foreseeing  this,  the  Prince  of  Parma  had,  im- 
mediately on  commencing  the  blockade,  taken  possession 
of  it,  and  spared  no  pains  to  render  it  tenable  to  the  last. 
At  the  village  of  Stabroek,  Count  Mansfeld  was  encamped 
with  the  greatest  part  of  his  army,  and  by  means  of  this 
very  Cowenstein  dam  kept  open  the  communication  with 
the  bridge,  the  headquarters,  and  the  Spanish  magazines 
at  Calloo.  Thus  the  army  formed  an  uninterrupted  line 
from  Stabroek  in  Brabant,  as  far  as  Bevern  in  Flanders, 
intersected  indeed,  but  not  broken  by  the  Scheldt,  and 
which  could  not  be  cut  off  without  a  sanguinary  conflict. 
On  the  dam  itself  within  proper  distances  five  different 
batteries  had  been  erected,  the  command  of  which  was 
given  to  the  most  valiant  officers  in  the  army.  Nay,  as 
the  Prince  of  Parma  could  not  doubt  that  now  the  whole 
fury  of  the  war  would  be  turned  to  this  point,  he  entrusted 
the  defence  of  the  bridge  to  Count  Mansfeld,  and  resolved 
to  defend  this  important  post  himself.  The  war,  there- 
fore, now  assumed  a  different  aspect,  and  the  theatre  of  it 
was  entirely  changed. 

Both  above  and"  below  Lillo,  the  Netherlanders  had  in 
several  places  cut  through  the  dam,  which  follows  the 
Brabant  shore  of  the  Scheldt;  and  where  a  short  time 
before  had  been  green  fields,  a  new  element  now  presented 
itself,  studded  with  masts  and  boats.  A  Zealand  fleet, 
commanded  by  Count  Hohenlohe,  navigated  the  inundated 
fields,  and  made  repeated  movements  against  the  Cowen- 
stein dam,  without,  however,  attempting  a  serious  attack 
on  it,  while  another  fleet  showed  itself  in  the  Scheldt, 
threatening  the  two  coasts  alternately  Avith  a  landing,  and 
occasionally  tlie  bridge  of  boats  with  an  attack.  For 
several  days  this  manoeuvre  was  practised  on  the  enemy, 
who,  uncertain  of  the  quarter  whence  an  attack  was  to  be 
expected,  would,  it  was  hoped,  be  exhausted  by  continual 
watching,  and  by  degrees  lulled  into  security  by  so  many 
false  alarms.  Antwerp  had  promised  Count  Hohenlohe 
to  support  the  attack  on  the  dam  by  a  flotilla  from  the 
town  ;  three  beacons  on  the  principal  tower  were  to  be 
the  signal  that  this  was  on  the  way.  When,  therefore, 
on  a  dark  night  the  expected  cobmrins  of  fire  really  as- 
cended above  Antwerp,  Count  Hohenlohe   immediately 


322        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

caused  five  hundred  of  his  troops  to  scale  the  dam  between 
two  of  the   enemy's  redoubts,  who  surprised  part  of  the 
Spanish  garrison  asleep,  and  cut   down  the  others  who 
attempted  to  defend  themselves.     In  a  short  time  they 
had  gained  a  firm  footing  upon  the  dam,  and  were  just 
on  the  point  of  disembarking  the  remainder  of  their  force, 
two  thousand  in  number,  when  the  Spaniards  in  the  ad- 
joining redoubts  marched  out  and,  favored  by  the  narrow- 
ness  of   the   ground,  made   a   desperate   attack   on   the 
crowded   Zealanders.     The  guns   from   the   neighboring 
batteries  opened  upon  the    approaching  fleet,  and  thus 
rendered  the  landing  of  the  remaining  troops  impossible; 
and  as  there  were  no  signs  of  co-operation  on  the  part  of 
the  city,  the  Zealanders  Mere  overpowered  after  a  short 
conflict  and  again  driven  doMn  from  the  dam.     The  vic- 
torious Spaniards  pursued  them  through  the  water  as  far 
as  their  boats,  sunk  many  of  the  latter,  and  compelled  the 
rest  to  retreat  with  heavy  loss.     Count  Hohenlohe  threw 
the  blame  of  this  defeat  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Antwerp, 
who  had  deceived  him  by  a  false  signal,  and  it  certainly 
must  be  attributed  to  the  bad  arrangement  of  both  parties 
that  the  attempt  failed  of  better  success. 

But  at  last  the  allies  determined  to  make  a  systematic 
assault  on  the  enemy  with  their  combined  force,  and  to 
put  an  end  to  the  siege  by  a  grand  attack  as  well  on  the 
dam  as  on  the  bridge.  The  16th  of  May,  1585,  was  fixed 
upon  for  the  execution  of  this  design,  and  both  armies 
used  their  utmost  endeavors  to  make  this  day  decisive. 
The  force  of  the  Hollanders  and  Zealanders,  united  to 
that  of  Antwerp,  exceeded  two  hundred  ships,  to  man 
wliich  they  had  stripped  their  towns  and  citadels,  ard 
with  this  force  they  purposed  to  attack  the  Cowenstein 
dam  on  both  sides.  The  bridge  over  the  Scheldt  was  to 
be  assailed  with  new  machines  of  Gianibelli's  invention, 
and  the  Duke  of  Parma  thereby  hindered  from  assisting 
the  defence  of  the  dam. 

Alexander,  apprised  of  the  danger  Avhich  threatened 
him,  spared  nothing  on  his  side  to  meet  it  with  enei-gy. 
Immediately  after  getting  possession  of  the  dam  he  had 
caused  redoubts  to"^be  erected  at  five  different  places,  and 
had  given  the  command  of  them  to  the  most  experienced 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.        323 

officers  of  the  array.  Tlie  first  of  these,  which  was  called 
the  Cross  battery,  was  erected  on  the  spot  where  the 
Cowenstein  dam  enters  the  great  embankment  of  the 
Scheldt,  and  makes  with  the  latter  the  form  of  a  cross ; 
the  Spaniard,  Mondragone,  was  appointed  to  the  command 
of  this  battery.  A  thousand  paces  farther  on,  near  the 
castle  of  Cowenstein,  was  posted  the  battery  of  St.  James, 
which  was  entrusted  to  the  command  of  Camillo  di  Monte. 
At  an  equal  distance  from  this  lay  the  battery  of  St. 
George,  and  at  a  thousand  paces  from  the  latter,  the  Pile 
battery,  under  the  command  of  Gamboa,  so  called  from 
the  pile-work  on  which  it  rested ;  at  the  farthest  end  of 
the  dam,  near  Stabroek,  was  the  fifth  redoubt,  where 
Count  Mansfeld,  with  Capizucchi,  an  Italian,  commanded. 
All  these  forts  the  prince  now  strengthened  with  artillery 
and  men ;  on  both  sides  of  the  dam,  and  along  its  whole 
extent,  he  caused  piles  to  be  driven,  as  well  to  render  the 
main  embankment  firmer,  as  to  impede  the  labor  of  the 
pioneers,  who  were  to  dig  through  it. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  of  May  the  enemy's 
forces  were  in  motion.  With  the  dusk  of  dawn  there 
came  floating  down  from  Lillo,  over  the  inundated  coun- 
try, four  burning  vessels,  which  so  alarmed  the  guards 
upon  the  dams,  who  recollected  the  former  terrible  ex- 
plosion, that  they  hastily  retreated  to  the  next  battery. 
This  was  exactly  what  the  enemy  desired.  In  these  ves- 
sels, which  had  merely  the  appearance  of  fire-ships,  sol- 
diers were  concealed,  who  now  suddenly  jumped  ashore, 
and  succeeded  in  mountinij  the  dam  at  the  undefended 
spot,  between  the  St.  George  and  Pile  batteries.  Imme- 
diately afterward  the  whole  Zealand  fleet  showed  itself, 
consisting  of  numerous  ships-of-war,  transports,  and  a 
crowd  of  smaller  craft,  which  were  laden  with  great  sacks 
of  earth,  wool,  fascines,  gabions,  and  the  like,  for  throw- 
ing up  breastworks  wherever  necessary.  The  ships-of- 
war  were  furnished  with  powerful  ai-tillery,  and  numer- 
ously and  bravely  manned,  and  a  whole  army  of  pioneers 
accompanied  it  in  order  to  dig  through  the  dam  as  soon 
as  it  should  be  in  their  possession. 

The  Zealanders  had  scarcely  begun  on  tlieir  side  to 
ascend  the  dam   when  the  fleet  of  Antwerp  advanced 


324       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

from  Osterweel  and  attacked  it  on  the  other.  A  high 
breastwork  was  hastily  thrown  up  between  the  two  near- 
est hostile  batteries,  so  as  at  once  to  divide  the  two  gar- 
risons and  to  cover  the  pioneers.  The  latter,  several 
hundreds  in  number,  now  fell  to  work  with  their  spades 
on  both  sides  of  the  dam,  and  dug  with  such  energy  that 
hopes  were  entertained  of  soon  seeing  the  two  seas 
united.  But  meanwhile  the  Spaniards  also  had  gained 
time  to  hasten  to  the  spot  from  the  two  nearest  redoubts, 
and  make  a  spirited  assault,  while  the  guns  from  the  bat- 
tery of  St.  George  played  incessantly  on  the  enemy's 
fleet.  A  furious  battle  now  raged  in  the  quarter  Avhere 
they  were  cutting  through  the  dike  and  throwing  up  the 
breastworks.  The  Zealanders  had  drawn  a  strong  line 
of  troops  round  the  pioneers  to  keep  the  enemy  from 
interrupting  their  work,  and  in  this  confusion  of  battle, 
in  the  midst  of  a  storm  of  bullets  from  the  enemy,  often 
up  to  the  breast  in  water,  among  the  dead  and  dying,  the 
pioneers  pursued  their  work,  under  the  incessant  exhorta- 
tions of  the  merchants,  who  impatiently  waited  to  see 
the  dam  opened  and  their  vessels  in  safety.  The  impor- 
tance of  the  result,  which  it  might  be  said  depended 
entirely  upon  their  spades,  appeared  to  animate  even  the 
common  laborers  with  heroic  courage.  Solely  intent 
upon  their  task,  they  neither  saw  nor  heard  the  work  of 
death  which  was  going  on  around  them,  and  as  fast  as 
the  foremost  ranks  fell  those  behind  them  pressed  into 
tlieir  places.  Their  operations  were  greatly  impeded  by 
the  piles  which  had  been  driven  in,  but  still  more  by  the 
attacks  of  the  Spaniards,  who  burst  with  desperate 
courage  through  the  thickest  of  the  enemy,  stabbed  the 
pioneers  in  the  pits  where  they  were  digging,  and  filled 
up  again  with  dead  bodies  the  cavities  which  the  living 
had  made.  At  last,  however,  when  most  of  their  ofUcers 
■were  killed  or  wounded,  and  the  number  of  the  enemy 
constantly  increasing,  while  fresh  laborers  were  su])] dying 
tJie  place  of  those  who  had  been  slain,  the  courage  of 
these  valiant  troops  began  to  give  way,  and  they  thought 
it  advisable  to  retreat  to  their  batteries.  Now,  there- 
fore, the  confederates  saw  themselves  masters  of  the 
whole  extent  of  the  dam,  from  Fort-  St,  George  as  far  as 


REVOLT    OF    THE    NETHEIILANDS  325 

the  Pile  battery.  As,  however,  it  seemed  too  long  to 
wait  for  the  thorougli  demolition  of  the  dam,  they  hastily 
vmloaded  a  Zealand  transport,  and  brought  tlie  cargo 
over  the  dam  to  a  vessel  of  Antwerp),  with  which  Count 
Hohenlohe  sailed  in  triumph  to  that  city.  The  sight  of 
the  provisions  at  once  filled  the  inhabitants  with  joy,  and 
as  if  the  victory  was  already  won,  they  gave  themselves 
lip  to  the  wildest  exultation.  The  bells  were  rung,  the 
cannon  discharged,  and  the  inhabitants,  transported  by 
their  unexpected  success,  hurried  to  the  Osterweel  gate, 
to  await  the  store-ships  wdiich  were  supposed  to  be  at 
hand. 

In  fact,  fortune  had  never  smiled  so  favorably  on  the 
besieged  as  at  that  moment.  The  enemy,  exhausted  and 
dispirited,  had  thrown  themselves  into  their  batteries, 
and,  far  from  being  able  to  struggle  with  the  victors  for 
the  post  they  had  conquered,  they  found  themselves 
rather  besieged  in  the  places  where  they  had  taken  ref- 
uge. Some  companies  of  Scots,  led  by  their  brave 
colonel,  Balfour,  attacked  the  battery  of  St.  George, 
which,  however,  was  relieved,  but  not  without  severe 
loss,  by  Camillo  di  Monte,  who  hastened  thither  from 
St.  James'  battery.  The  Pile  battery  was  in  a  much 
worse  condition,  it  being  hotly  cannonaded  by  the  ships, 
and  threatened  every  moment  to  crumble  to  pieces.  Gam- 
boa,  who  commanded  it,  lay  wounded,  and  it  was  unfor- 
tunately deficient  in  artillery  to  keep  the  enemy  at  a 
distance.  The  breastwork,  too,  which  the  Zealanders 
had  thrown  up  between  this  battery  and  that  of  St. 
George  cut  off  all  hope  of  assistance  from  the  Scheldt. 
If,  tlierefore,  the  Belgians  had  only  taken  advantage  of 
this  Aveakness  and  inactivity  of  the  enemy  to  proceed 
with  zeal  and  perseverance  in  cutting  through  the  dam, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  a  passage  might  have  been  made, 
and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  Avhole  siege.  But  here  also 
the  same  want  of  consistent  energy  showed  itself  which 
had  marked  the  conduct  of  the  peo])le  of  Antwerp  dur- 
ing the  whole  course  of  the  siege.  The  zeal  with  which 
the  work  had  been  commenced  cooled  in  propoi'tion  to 
the  success  which  attended  it.  It  was  soon  found  too 
tedious  to  dig  through  the  dyke ;  it  seemed  far  easier  to 


326       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

transfer  the  cargoes  from  the  large  store-ships  into 
smaller  ones,  and  carry  these  to  the  town  with  the  flood 
tide.  St.  Aldegonde  and  Hohenlohe,  instead  of  remain- 
ing to  animate  the  industry  of  the  Avorkmen  by  their 
peT'sonal  presence,  left  the  scene  of  action  at  the  decisive 
moment,  in  order,  by  sailing  to  the  town  with  a  corn  ves- 
sel, to  win  encomiums  on  their  wisdom  and  valor. 

While  both  parties  were  fighting  on  the  dam  with  the 
most  obstinate  fury  the  bridge  over  the  Scheldt  had 
been  attacked  from  Antwerp  with  new  machines,  in 
order  to  give  employment  to  the  prince  in  that  quarter. 
But  the  sound  of  tlie  firing  soon  apprised  him  of  what 
was  going  on  at  the  dyke,  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  the 
bridge  clear  he  hastened  to  support  the  defence  of  the 
dyke.  Followed  by  two  hundred  Spanish  pikemen,  he 
flew  to  the  place  of  attack,  and  arrived  just  in  time  to 
prevent  the  complete  defeat  of  his  troops.  He  hastily 
posted  some  guns  which  he  had  brought  with  him  in  the 
two  nearest  redoubts,  and  maintained  from  thence  a 
heavy  fire  upon  the  enemy's  ships.  He  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  his  men,  and,  with  his  sword  in  one  hand  and 
shield  in  the  other,  led  them  against  the  enemy.  The 
news  of  his  arrival,  which  quickly  spread  from  one  end 
of  the  dyke  to  the  other,  revived  the  drooping  spirits  of 
his  trooj^s,  and  the  conflict  recommenced  with  renewed 
violence,  made  still  more  miirderous  by  the  nature  of  the 
ground  where  it  was  fought.  Upon  the  narrow  ridge  of 
the  dam,  which  in  many  places  was  not  more  than  nine 
paces  broad,  about  five  thousand  combatants  were  fight- 
ing ;  so  confined  was  the  spot  upon  which  the  strength  of 
both  armies  was  assembled,  and  which  was  to  decide  the 
Avlaole  issue  of  the  siege.  With  the  Antwerpers  the  last 
bulwark  of  their  city  was  at  stake;  with  the  Spaniards  it 
was  to  deternaine  the  Mdiole  success  of  their  imdertaking. 
Both  parties  fousjht  with  a  courage  which  despair  alone 
could  inspire.  From  both  the  extremities  of  the  dam 
the  tide  of  war  rolled  itself  towards  the  centre,  where 
tlie  Zealanders  and  Antwerpers  had  tlie  advantage,  and 
Avhere  they  had  collected  their  whole  strength.  The 
Italians  and  Spaniards,  inflamed  by  a  noble  emulation, 
pressed   on  from  Stabroek;   and  from  the   Scheldt  the 


REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       327 

"Walloons  and  Spaniards  advanced,  with  their  general  at 
their  head.  While  the  former  endeavored  to  relieve  the 
Pile  battery,  which  was  hotly  jDressed  by  the  enemy, 
both  by  sea  and  land,  the  latter  threw  themselves  on  the 
breastwork,  between  the  St.  George  and  the  Pile  bat- 
teries, with  a  fury  which  carried  everything  before  it. 
Here  the  flower  of  the  Belgian  troops  fought  behind  a 
well-fortified  rampart,  and  the  guns  of  the  two  fleets 
covered  this  important  post.  The  prince  was  already 
pressing  forward  to  attack  this  formidable  defence  with 
his  small  army  when  he  received  intelligence  that  the 
Italians  and  Spaniards,  under  Capizucchi  and  Aquila,  had 
forced  their  way,  sword  in  hand,  into  the  Pile  battery, 
had  got  possession  of  it,  and  were  now  likewise  ad- 
vancing from  the  other  side  against  the  enemy's  breast- 
work. Before  this  intrenchment,  therefore,  the  whole 
force  of  both  armies  was  now  collected,  and  both  sides 
used  their  utmost  efforts  to  carry  and  to  defend  this  posi- 
tion. The  Netherlanders  on  board  the  fleet,  loath  to 
remain  idle  spectators  of  the  conflict,  sprang  ashore  from 
their  vessels.  Alexander  attacked  the  breastwork  on  one 
side.  Count  Mansfeld  on  the  other;  five  assaults  were 
made,  and  five  times  they  were  repulsed.  The  Xether- 
landers  in  this  decisive  moment  surpassed  themselves; 
never  in  the  whole  course  of  the  war  had  they  fought 
with  such  determination.  But  it  was  the  Scotch  and 
English  in  particular  who  baffled  the  attempts  of  the 
enemy  by  their  valiant  resistance.  As  no  one  would 
advance  to  the  attack  in  the  quarter  where  the  Scotch 
fought,  the  duke  himself  led  oh  the  troops,  Avith  a  javelin 
in  his  hand,  and  up  to  his  breast  in  water.  At  last,  after 
a  protracted  struggle,  the  forces  of  Count  Mansfeld  suc- 
ceeded Avith  their  halberds  and  pikes  in  making  a  breach 
in  the  breastwork,  and  by  raising  themselves  on  one 
another's  shoulders  scaled  the  parapet.  Barthelemy 
Toralva,  a  Spanish  captain,  was  the  first  who  showed 
himself  on  the  top ;  and  almost  at  the  same  instant  the 
Italian,  Capizucchi,  appeared  upon  the  edge  of  it;  and 
thus  the  contest  of  valor  was  decided  with  equal  glory 
for  both  nations.  It  is  worth  while  to  notice  here  the 
manner  in  which  the  Prince  of  Parma,  who  was  made 


328        REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. - 


arbiter  of  this  emulous  strife,  encouraged  this  delicate 
sense  of  honor  among  his  warriors.  He  embraced  the 
Italian,  Capizucchi,  in  presence  of  the  troojjs,  and  ac- 
knowledged aloud  that  it  was  principally  to  the  courage 
of  this  officer  that  he  owed  the  capture  of  the  breast- 
work. He  caused  the  Spanish  captain,  Toralva,  who  a\  as 
dano-erously  wounded,  to  be  conveyed  to  his  own  quar- 
ters at  Stabroek,  laid  on  his  own  bed,  and  covered  with 
the  cloak  which  he  himself  had  worn  the  day  before  the 
battle. 

After  the  capture  of  thfe  breastwork  the  victory  no  lon- 
ger remained  doubtful.  The  Dutch  and  Zealand  troops, 
who  had  disembarked  to  come  to  close  action  with  the 
enemy,  at  once  lost  their  courage  when  they  looked  about 
them  and  saw  the  vessels,  which  were  their  last  refuge, 
putting  off  from  the  shore. 

Forthe  tide  had  begun  to  ebb,  and  the  commanders  of 
the  fleet,  from  fear  of  being   stranded  with  their  heavy 
transports,  and,  in  case  of  an  unfortunate   issue  to  the 
engagement,  becoming  the  prey   of    the    enemy,   retired 
fromthe  dam,  and  made  for  deep  water.     Ko  sooner  did 
Alexander  perceive  this  than  he  pointed  out  to  his  troops 
the  flying  vessels,  and  encouraged  them  to  finish  the  ac- 
tion with  an  enemy  who  already  despaired  of  their  safety. 
The  Dutch  auxiliaries  were  the  first  that  gave  way,  and 
their    example   was    soon    followed    by    the   Zealanders. 
Hastily  leaping  from  the  dam  they  endeavored  to  reach 
the  vessels  by  wading  or   swimming;  but  from  their  dis- 
orderly flight   they   impeded    one    another,    and   fell  in 
heaps  under  the  swords  of  the  pursuers.     Many  perished 
even  in  the  boats,  as  each  strove  to  get  on  board  before 
the  othei-,  and  several  vessels  sank  under  the  weight  of  the 
numbers  who  rushed  into  them.     The  Antw-erpers,  who 
fought  for  their  liberty,  their  hearths,  their  faith,  were 
the  last  who  retreated j  but  this  very  circumstance  aug- 
mented tlieir  disaster.     Many  of  their  vessels  were  out- 
stripped  by  the  ebb-tide,  and  grounded   within  reach  of 
the  enemy's   cannon,  and   were   consequently   destroyed 
with  all  on  board.     Crowds  of  fugitives  endeavored  by 
swimming  to  gain  the  other  transports,  which   had  got 
into  deep  water;  but  such  was  the  rage  and  boldness  of 


EEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.       329 

the  Spaniards  that  they  swam  after  them  with  their 
swords  between  their  teeth,  and  dragged  many  even 
from  the  ships.  The  victory  of  the  king's  troops  was 
complete  but  bloody  ;  for  of  the  Spaniards  about  eight 
hundred,  of  the  Netherlanders  some  thousands  (without 
reckoning  those  who  Avere  drowned),  were  left  on  the 
field,  and  on  both  sides  many  of  the  principal  nobility 
perished.  Moi*e  than  thirty  vessels,  with  a  large  supply 
of  provisions  for  Antwerp,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victors,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  cannon  and  other 
military  stores.  The  dam,  the  possession  of  which  had 
been  so  dearly  maintained,  was  pierced  in  thirteen  differ- 
ent places,  and  the  bodies  of  those  who  had  cut  through 
it  were  now  used  to  stop  up  the  openings. 

The  following  day  a  transport  of  immense  size  and  sin- 
gular construction  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  royalists.  It 
formed  a  floating  castle,  and  had  been  destined  for  the 
attack  on  the  Cowenstein  dam.  The  people  of  Antwerp 
had  built  it  at  an  immense  expense  at  the  very  time 
when  the  engineer  Gianibelli's  useful  proposals  had  been 
rejected  on  account  of  the  cost  they  entailed,  and  this 
ridiculous  monster  was  called  by  the  proud  title  of  "End 
of  the  War,"  which  appellation  was  afterwards  changed 
for  the  more  appropriate  sobriquet  of  "  Money  lost ! " 
When  this  vessel  was  launched  it  turned  out,  as  every 
sensible  person  had  foretold,  that  on  account  of  its 
unwieldly  size  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  steer  it,  and 
it  could  hardly  be  floated  by  the  highest  tide.  With 
great  difficulty  it  was  worked  as  far  as  Ordam,  Avhere, 
deserted  by  the  tide,  it  went  aground,  and  fell  a  jarey  to 
the  enemy. 

The  attack  upon  the  Cowenstein  dam  was  the  last  at- 
tempt which  was  made  to  relieve  Antwerp.  From  this 
time  the  courage  of  the  besieged  sank,  and  the  magis- 
tracy of  the  town  vainly  labored  to  inspirit  with  distant 
hopes  the  lower  orders,  on  whom  the  present  distress 
weighed  heaviest.  Hitherto  the  price  of  bread  had  been 
kept  down  to  a  tolerable  rate,  although  the  quality  of  it 
continued  to  deteriorate ;  by  degrees,  however,  provisions 
became  so  scarce  that  a  famine  was  evidently  near  at 
hand.     Still  hopes  were  entertained  of  being  able  to  hold 


330       KEVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

out,  at  least  until  the  corn  between  the  town  and  the 
farthest  batteries,  which  was  ah'eacly  in  full  ear,  could  be 
reaped ;  but  before  that  could  be  done  the  enemy  had 
carried  the  last  outwork,  and  had  appropriated  the  whole 
harvest  to  their  use.  At  last  the  neighboring  and  con- 
federate town  of  Malines  fell  into  the  enemy's  hands,  and 
with  its  fall  vanished  the  only  remaining  hope  of  getting 
supplies  from  Brabant.  As  there  was,  therefore,  no  longer 
any  means  of  increasing  the  stock  of  provisions  nothing 
was  left  but  to  diminish  the  consumers.  All  useless  per- 
sons, all  strangers,  nay  even  the  women  and  children 
were  to  be  sent  away  out  of  the  town,  but  this  proposal 
was  too  revolting  to  humanity  to  be  carried  into  execu- 
tion. Another  plan,  that  of  expelling  the  Catholic  inhab- 
itants, exasperated  them  so  much  that  it  had  almost  ended 
in  open  mutiny.  And  thus  St.  Aldegonde  at  last  saw 
himself  compelled  to  yield  to  the  riotous  clamors  of  the 
populace,  and  on  the  17th  of  August,  1585,  to  make 
overtures  to  the  Duke  of  Parma  for  the  surrender  of  the 
town. 


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